"It made me think" American Goth

            American Goth. You may think, “Why would this be anyone’s favorite essay?” Well, because it really made me think in depth about the meaning of the text.

            In the essay “American Goth” by Sarah Vowell it tells how Sarah goes undercover goth at a club to see what it is like. But that is not entirely what the meaning of it is. Some people may just read the essay and think that it was weird or pointless, but I got a whole different meaning from it; looks.

You are probably thinking, “Looks, what does she mean?” I mean that you should never judge a person by their cover! Many people will take one look at someone and classify them as ugly, poor, rich, fat, skinny and weird, but half the time we do that we don't really know what they are actually like, so why say things that are not entirely true? Maybe they are some of those things, but does it really matter what they look like? Maybe someone is weird, but they could be extremely nice. Maybe someone is poor, but they could be very giving. Maybe someone is ugly, but they could be the kindness person you ever met. There is a lot of guessing when you look at someone and classify him or her.

So I guess why I really loved this essay was because it didn’t come out and say “Don’t judge a person by their cover.” It made you think in between the lines and examine every little inch. The ending of this essay really made my decision about it because of what Sarah Vowell did. Here is the ending and think to yourself if it made you feel the way I do!

Ending: I hail a cab. Usually, I am a cab driver’s dream-polite, small, nonthreatening. Perhaps that is why the cab drivers always talk to me. But tonight, I am Becky. I am goth. Not a word from the driver. Bless him, he keeps starring at me and my eye makeup in the rearview mirror, watching his back. She is menacing, he’s thinking. I can tell. His fear pays off. I tip him extravagantly. So extravagantly that I blow my cover. He turns and gives me a look that says, “Thanks, Hon.”

Modes of exspression

     The essay I chose to write about for modes of expression is "Shooting Dad" by Sarah Vowell. In "Shooting Dad" the many modes of expression that were included were narrative, internal monologue and dialogue. Below I will show you some examples.
     I will first start off telling you about the narrative mode. This mode is like storytelling. Most of Sarah's essays contain the narrative mode. "Shooting Dad" is an exceptional example of narrating. Throughout the whole essay Sarah tells a story about her dad and her not having something in common because of his passion for firearms, and the events taking place in are also told in a story like way. In the start of the essay Sarah writes "If you were passing by the house where I grew up during  my teenage years and it happened to be before election day, you wouldn't have needed to come inside to see that it was a house divided." You see that is no normal way to start an essay, unless you are writing a narrative essay, in which Sarah Vowell is. Another example is when Sarah is describing her life "I was eleven when we moved into that Bozeman house. We had never lived in town before, and this was a college town at that." Again, Sarah is telling a story in her essay. The narrative part of the essay really sticks out from the others because it is such a difference from other essays.
   Next we have the dialogue part of the essay. Most essays do contain dialogue, but Sarah Vowell's contain more than usual. Vowell tends to use dialogue as an extra in "Shooting Dad" because she feels that having dialogue will help the readers understand this essay better. Some examples of dialogue in this essay is   at the end of the essay when her dad is explaining what to do when he dies, "You get to drag this thing up on top of the Gravellies on opening day of hunting season. And looking off at Sphinx Mountain, you get to put me in little paper bags. I can take my last hunting on opening season." Another example is when Sarah is approached by a hiker he says to her "So you work for the radio and that's your dad?" Like I said Vowell likes to use some short and long dialogue to help her readers understand the essay "Shooting Dad" better.
    The last mode of expression I thought Vowell used well in "Shooting Dad" was internal monologue. Internal monologue really helped me read the essay without it being confusing. A really great example in "Shooting Dad" is when Sarah is thinking to herself "I will do it, too. I will have my father's body burned into ashes. I will pack these ashes into paper bags. I will go to the mountains with my mother, my sister, and the cannon. I will plunge his remains into the barrel and point it into a hill so that he doesn't take anyone with him. I will light the fuse. But I will not cover my ears. Because when I blow what used to be my dad into the earth, I want it to hurt." That example of internal monologue really stuck out to me.
    Overall Sarah Vowell's "Shooting Dad" essay contained a lot of modes of expression. I think that really helped put the essay together in a better way. It also helped communicate better with the audience!
   

Take the Cannoli Summaries

Shooting Dad:


      In the essay "Shooting Dad" by Sarah Vowell she stresses the fact that people, no matter how different they are, are held together by something small but powerful. Sarah writes about how her dad has a sincere passion for firearms and she can not relate to him because of this. When she first held a gun at age 6 she said "holding the pistol made me feel small" and that said she no longer touched guns. As the years went on she felt like she had a loss in her life because her dad and her could not be connected very strongly. During his last few years of life Sarah started to connect, not with guns, but with love for her dad. He once said to her " You get to drag this thing up on top of the Gravellies on opening day os hunting season. And looking off at Sphinx Mountain, you get to put me in little paper bags. I can take my last hunting trip on opening morning." Sarah committed to taking her fathers ashes and shooting him into the mountains because she cared for him and wanted him to be happy. Then Sarah said "I will plunge his remains into the barrel and point it into a hill so that he doesn't take anyone with him. I will light the fuse. But I will not cover my ears. Because when I blow what used to be my dad into the earth, I want it to hurt." That there proves she had a true bond with him but sometimes the bond doesn't always have to be apparent.




Vindictively American:


   People always say "Home is where the heart is" and I believe that is true after reading "Vindictively American" by Sarah Vowell. Don't you think listening to the beach boys thirty times and hugging an american novel is a cry for home? While Sarah is abroad studying, she and her friend see the news showing fires and riots in Los Angeles. Her friend, who is from Europe says to her "Why would you ever want to go back there?" Sarah turns to her and says "Because it's huge." But thats not really why Sarah wanted to go back, it was because she missed her quiet home in Montana, and the reality of life in America.  Later Sarah gets up and runs off crying to her room. She is deeply in love with America no matter what happens. America will always be her home, not some foreign country. Feeling lost and lonely she cries. Then the book says "And I wept. I tossed all my Mondrian books on the floor and hugged that apocalyptic American novel to my chest and rocked back and forth, missing all of it, death and Elvis and California and catastrophe. I wanted Jackson Pollock. And I wanted to go home. I got on my bike and rode to McDonald’s and read the book again, smearing its pages with fries." Reading that definitely made my mind up about what this story is really about: Missing home, where she wants to be no matter what. She has a passion for America and she is not willing to give it up for anything.




Music Lessons:


   Being yourself is what got Sarah Vowell so far. In "Music Lessons", an essay in the book "Take the Cannoli" Sarah was a band geek. She got made fun of often. Sarah made a point at the end of her essay that even though she went through VERY embarrassing moments she realized she needed to withstand embarrassment. In high school she always felt she shouldn't play an instrument if she wasn't good enough and when she got laughed at in front of the whole high school she realized she was a dork. But as life went on she got used to being called a loser or  dork, she learned that she needed to be proud of who you are and to withstand embarrassment! Just being yourself will make life so much better.




American Goth:


   Many of you have heard the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover", but have you heard the saying "Don't judge a person by their cover?" Many people will take one look at someone and classify them as ugly, poor, rich, fat, skinny and weird, but half the time we do that we don't really know what they are actually like, so why say things that are not entirely true? Maybe they are some of those things, but does it really matter what they look like? Maybe someone is weird, but they could be extremely nice. Maybe someone is poor, but they could be very giving. Maybe someone is ugly, but they could be the kindness person you ever met. There is a lot of guessing when you look at someone and classify them. In "American Goth" Sarah vowell goes undercover as a goth person at a goth club to see what it is like. She gets a complete makeover and commits to being goth for the night. Sarah Said "The club is about being seen" which expresses who these people really are in the club. In the goth club Sarah said you can act however you want "You don't have to do the getting to know you crap if you want to talk to someone." The real reason I think the essay is truly about not judging a person is because of the ending. When Sarah gets into a cab after the club party is over she slides into the backseat the cab driver looks at her strangely and Sarah realize she is being judged by her look. Usually the cab drivers love her fun personality but tonight she is pretending to be goth and all the cab driver does is stare at her in the rear view mirror. But, when she arrives at her destination she gets out and tips the cab driver ALOT! He then turns to her and says "Thanks hun." See, I told you that you shouldn't judge a person by their cover. They could be goth, but that doesn't mean they are not kind and giving!




Dark Circles


    Would you rather be the exact same as everyone else, like the same clothes on the same day, the same job, the same kind of dog, the same exact house and the same exact hair, eyes and height, OR would you rather be different and have different qualities and flaws? The reason Sarah Vowell wrote dark circles was because in the beginning she wanted to be just like her sister and have the same qualities like her. But she didn't, Sarah had dark circles under her eyes, brown hair, brown eyes and worst of all insomnia. Her sister on the other hand had blond hair, blue eyes, no insomnia and no dark circles. Do you wonder why Sarah had dark circles? It was because she had insomnia!!! She hated having only two hours of sleep a night. She always looked bad in pictures cause of her dark circles. So Sarah decided to try to fix her insomnia. She asked her mom, friend, doctor and the internet for help..... none of them helped! She realized that everyone is different and everyone has flaws. That's what makes people in the world who they are! Sarah is an insomniac and her sister isn't, THEY ARE DIFFERENT! 




Drive through please:


Friendship. There are many definitions of friendship but the one that related most to the essay "Drive through please" was an ally in a fight or cause; supporter. The reason I picked this definition to represent this essay was because of Sarah's friend. When Sarah does not know how to drive at the age of 28 her friend offers his help to her. He takes her out to a parking lot to drive for a couple of hours. She asks all sorts of questions like, "Which way do you turn the ignition, which one is the brake and the gas pedal, what am I supposed to see out of the rear view mirror?" Ira (her friend) answers all the question kindly. When the day is over she goes home and falls asleep, but the next morning Ira comes back for lesson number two. Sarah does not at all want to get back into the car AT ALL! She says she doesn't even remember driving and that she will never drive again. But Ira is persistent and eventually gets her back into the car to drive and she finally gets her license. That ending concluded that friends can help even if you don't want them too! The moral to the essay is that friendship is important and it will help you succeed in life!