First, the essay uses an effective opening formula. The story starts with a quote in a foreign language that helps to intrigue the reader. The English reader does not know the meaning of this quote and, as a result, gets the urge to read further in order to unravel the mystery. Besides, the use of the foreign language in the opening quote helps to locate the story. The reader gets a mental note that the actions in the story are happening in a foreign land. This helps create the context of the story. This has the effect of creating an excellent comprehension of the story as the reader tries to reflect the happenings in the story with the foreign quote in mind.
In addition, the first paragraph helps create suspense that is crucial in gluing the reader to the rest of the story. The statement “life is not waiting” which keeps on repeating in the first paragraph makes the reader anxious of what will unfold in the rest of the story. The writer does not keep the reader waiting for long but goes ahead to expose the meaning of the statement by introducing the story of the girl who died in an accident. The story is significantly emotional to the reader as the girl’s death occurred in a vehicle and the narrator heard the story in a vehicle. The reader is anxious that the same fate might befall the girl, which further immerses the reader into the story. The reader unconsciously sympathizes with the narrator as further events of the girl indicate that she resembles the writer in many ways. For instance, she was a university student travelling in a bus to school just like the current narrator. Besides, the narrator juxtaposes his life expectations with that of the girl.
-
0
Preparing Orders
-
0
Active Writers
-
0%
Positive Feedback
-
0
Support Agents
The story has a significant section that talks about life and death. Death is a sensitive and emotional topic. This subject makes listeners or readers reflect about their life and make serious reflections. The writer’s sentiments about death are remarkably successful in making the reader part of the story and, as a result, think about his life. This makes the story outstandingly emotional, a fact that makes the reader share the fears and feelings in the story.
Moving on to the composition decisions, the writer had to consider several issues in writing the story. First, the writer had to break down the story into various segments in order to ease the presentation. There is the introduction, the main body, and, finally, the conclusion. The introduction tells the reader of what to expect in the story. It is short and creates the tone of the story. Then the writer moves on to expound on the details of the story. This is the heart of the subject, and the writer gets the chance to explain his sentiments and feelings in this part. Finally, the conclusion wraps up the story and gives the observations and opinions of the writer. This breakdown is outstandingly effective in presenting a comprehensive essay as the reader easily follows through it. Besides, the story follows the structure of a setup, conflict and resolution. In the setup, the narrator and the girl are introduced. In the conflict, the accident and death are introduced, as well as the narrator’s shortfalls in life. Finally, the story gives a resolution, which is what the narrator thinks about the conflict. This part stresses on the presence of death and the importance of living a good life.
The other decision the writer made was the use of vivid descriptions. The first instance is when the writer gives the number of the bus he took (number 28). This helps the story to appear real to the reader, as there is evidence of the experiences under description. Besides, the writer’s descriptions of the trees and the color of the leaves are a true description of the weather in autumn. The description of the way the leaves were leaving the leaves to fall does not only describe the weather of the autumn, but also are a metaphor for the looming death of human beings. The writer disrupts the beautiful description of the autumn weather with the outburst “life is short”. This creates a thick contrast, a factor that helps add to the suspense in the story.
Turning on to the situation of the story in relation to ideas about writing creative nonfiction essays, there are several aspects. First, there is the use of empirical facts. It is evident that the writer had to do some research in order to add empirical evidence to the story. For instance, the writer gives statistics of the World Health Organization on the number of people who die of road accidents each year. Exhaustive research is crucial in piecing up an informative nonfiction essay (Anderson 1989). This helps to place the story in the empirical events of the world. Besides, creative nonfiction essays usually tell stories that do not have superfluous descriptions and the use of unimaginable hyperbole (Gutkind 2007). The current essay consists of rather normal descriptions that can happen in everyday life. For example, death through vehicle accidents happens every day in the world. The other descriptions about a student’s expectations, friendship as well sibling confrontations are also more real than fiction.
The story shares the same theme with Cole’s (2011) novel Open City as they both talk about the inevitability of death. Cole (2011) talks about how he is almost short in Nigeria, his home country that he cherishes very much. The current writer laments about the likelihood of death anytime and anywhere. Besides, the piece uses the first person mode of narrating like Kincaid’s (1991) work. The stories are reported from the “I” perspective. In addition, both stories have some usage of dialogue. However, the Kincaid’s piece is significantly longer and more detailed than the current work.