Reflective Essay

Reflective Essay

           

For my portfolio I decided to include my essays based on Kalman’s “Back to the Land”, and Neufeld’s “A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge”, because I believe that these essay best reflect my writing capabilities. 

The purpose of the Kalman essay was to inform my audience on why Kalman might be so focused on Americans changing their eating habits.  I did this by providing examples from the text and describing why they are so important.  I mainly focused on the aspect of fast food and why it might be a better idea to take the time to properly prepare a meal or eating more organic food in hope that my readers would take the time to really think about the way they eat and about what they are putting in their body (99110642940 1-2). I also bring up the idea of being a vegetarian based on a picture of a cow standing in a pasture (99110642940 2), in hopes that they would reflect if the current eating lifestyle they are living is they right one for them. 

Another important aspect that I included into my Kalman essay was her use of photographs in her text because when talking about something it is hard to picture it in one’s mind, but seeing it is another thing altogether.  To elaborate this point I am referring to the cow reference again, when eating a hamburger most of us are not picturing the actual cow but Kalman showing a cow in her work might alter someone’s thought for the next time that they eat meat (99110642940 2-3).  I also mention the importance of teaching important healthy habits young so they grow up eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  Also children are eager to learn new things and would like to share what they learn to others whether it is family and/or friends.

An important revision that I made in my Kalman essay was adding why a statement that I made was important, (Original, “Another photograph that Kalman uses is one of a meal that was made entirely of garden food from Bob Cannard’s Farm that shows you can grow your own food and from that cook a perfect meal. “  Added statement, “This is important because it shows that it is possible to create meal only using the ingredients you grew by yourself.”).

After reading the Kalman essay my audience would be positively affected by being more aware of their eating habits and how they might want to alter their lifestyle for the better.

The purpose of Neufeld essay was to show the audience about what the victims had to go through after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.  I did these by describing certain aspects that Neufeld showed in his comic because even though it might be viewed as negative, it is important to include.  An example of this is shown through description of the violence that some of characters exuded during certain situations 99110642940 1). 

Another important detail shown was the desperation that the victims went through and how they just wanted to start to move on from this fateful event and just wanted to rebuild their lives (99110642940 2-3).

An important revision that was made in the Neufeld essay was adding a statement to a paragraph.  Within the paragraph mention the desperation aspect of the situation I thought it might be a good idea to add the detail of death that was shown in Neufeld’s comic (Added statement- Also this comic brings the aspect of death during this time to the surface.  A child might not know what death is but by being surrounded by it, questions will be asked.  An example of this when an elderly woman has passed away a little girl asks her mother if that woman is sleeping (Neufeld 236).  By this situation a mother has to question to whether or not explain death to their children and it might be too early to do so (99110642940 3).

The audience of the Neufeld audience might be positively affected by this work by being more aware of what goes on in the victims’ lives after a disaster has struck.  Also that more things need to be done to help them move on from it so they are able to repair their lives and that every little thing that is done or donated is important and needed in order for the victims to rebuild their lives.

A challenge that I faced during this particular assignment was to critically analyze a comic, which is something that I never thought of doing before and was nervous to do.  However once I started to read the comic I learned that it was not that different from analyzing a text and wasn’t that difficult.  An aspect that made it easier to write about the comic was that the panels provided more examples to include in my essay, because it is easier to pick out certain aspects in a piece when pictures are being shown.