After reading a few lines of Adam Gopnik, I started thinking that this guy really knows how to write. He starts off with the image of a mass murder similar to or exactly like Colombine and adds the sound of cell phones. The ringing of cell phones is all that can be heard. I had to take a step back after I read this. I have read this essay before but it still gets me. I can't even imagine being a parent trying to call my child after an incident like this and just having the ringing of a cell phone pounding in my ear without the release of a familiar voice to calm myself.
It's funny though because this isn't even what the essay is really about. It is just another attention getter that does a damn good jod at getting and keeping ones attention. When you read further, Gopnik starts to slow down and bring in the real issue. Why is America so bad with gun control? That's kinda what I got out of this essay. Almost everything he discusses is about how the United States isn't very good at preventing mass murders. We are the United States. We are hunting country. Until we learn to step off the trigger, cell phones will ring like birds singing.
No kidding Gopnik is a good writer, Emma. You make a great point how an effective intro can bring the reader into a piece. (And I like your closing simile about cell phones sounding like birds!).
ReplyDeleteGood job keeping up with the posts. Keep writing, and check out some of your classmates' stuff, too, if you haven't already.
Tooks the words right out of my mind Emma. Excellent form of writing this guy has. It's very captivating in a sense of certitude, from the way the parents felt to the real world tragedies. He knew what he wanted and he did his job in showing us what he wanted us to see.
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