Reading Response

     When I read the essay "Lenses" I was kind of confused. At first it started out with the author telling us about how hard it is to look through a microscope. She then started to tell the readers that once you get used to it, it's not that hard. In order for people to get the point of the story, they have to finish it to the end because the point of it, I feel, is in the last paragraph. I didn't really get it in the beginning because the author seemed like she was just trying to scramble around the story to make it interesting. 

     When I read it more than once, I got the vibe of she was explaining how difficult life can be. She says "The switch on the microscope teaches us how to move our hands wrong." I felt like that was the author saying that life can teach us how to do bad things. I also felt like it was saying that no matter what, we're going to make those mistakes because it's in the best interest of us. I also felt like this story would be good to read in class because it throws a curve ball in the middle. It says "This story isn't about that, it's about swans. It's not even a story it's a description." That's when I got confused, but when I finished it, I understood it.

     All in all this story would be good to teach to any class that has to do with literature or writing. It teaches us, or at least it taught me to be creative with your words. Also it taught me that no matter what people say, you can have different perspectives of different things than other people. I know when we talked about this story in class, my perspective was different than everyone else. I feel like this story was made to make a point about the way people write. The author was trying to show us that. 

Reading Response

     I am doing a reading response on the poem called "Violent Rooms" by Dawn Lundy Martin. I felt like this poem was very short and not that good. I think the author could have done something better with it and could have put more description in it along with detail and they could have just made it 100 times better. I am not a poem reader to begin with, and when I read this, I was confused to what was happening in the poem. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt this way after reading this poem. 

     Also in this poem, it doesn't give much description to the wording or the meaning. I think this poem is trying to the readers about a time in the author's life in which she specifically doesn't want to say. It was just hard for me to wrap my head around and understand it. I feel like if we as college students can come up with stuff that's 100 times better, than so can well-known authors. I also felt like this author just wrote this poem just to have another piece of their work in the world. 

     All in all, I would not recommend this poem to anyone. Especially if they're not into poetry to begin with. This poem will only make them confused. Honestly after reading this poem, I remember why I don't like poetry and why I will probably never read it or understand it. This poem in my opinion, shouldn't even be a poem. We shouldn't have to read it, but I don't make the rules. I just didn't like it and I don't recommend this poem to anyone. 

-Colton Ryder

Reading Response

     In the short-story "The Girl with the Blackened Eye", I found it full of detail. The author used great detail in her words and language. The detail made me feel like i could picture the girl. I felt like I could actually see her and the wounds that she suffered. Like when the author said "This black eye I had, once! Like a clown's eye painted on." I could picture a clown with black painted eyes. Also the detail makes the story more suspenseful and enjoyable. Without the details I don't think this story would be very good. 

     Also in this story, her word choice is awesome. I don't think I've ever read a short-story with great word choice and great detail. The story made me feel like I was hovering the main character watching everything that was happening in the story. "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" was a great example of a short-story. I think it's a great example because, it shows the readers how important details are and how important the word choice and language is. I had no idea how important this stuff was until I read this story. 

     All in all, this story is a good story to read if someone has 10 minutes. It's very suspenseful and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. It keeps you guessing about what's going to happen next. Usually I would stop reading stories after the first two pages if I didn't find it interesting. But this story made me read more. It drug me in and I like that about stories. The first sentence itself drew me in. 

-Colton Ryder