Close Reading

       To euthanize, or to not. When is it right? Jessica Pierce writes about this issue in her article Deciding When a Pet Has Suffered Enough. She begins by using imagery to open her article, describing a personal experience she has had with her own pet, Ody.

       ODY died peacefully last year... He was 14 and a half. Truth be told, Ody didn’t just die. I killed        him. I paid a vet to come to my house and inject a chemical solution into a vein in Ody’s back leg...             Ody had been in serious decline for six months. Partial paralysis of his laryngeal muscles made it        hard for him to breathe, and he would begin to pant at the slightest exertion. His once deep tenor        bark had transformed into a raspy Darth Vader croak... His muscles atrophied, and his walk was        crab-like and unsteady.

       Pierce describes the handicaps of her dog by retelling Ody's actions during his decline. "Raspy Darth Vader croak," "pant at the slightest exertion," "deep tenor bark": these phrases show how Ody sounded during his last days. Other phrases "crab-like" or "unsteady," help you imagine how Ody struggled to walk. This use of imagery helps the reader really envision Ody and sympathize with Pierce, which helps Pierce defend other treatments for pain other than euthanasia.

       Pierce's word choice is important in this article as well. Later, Piece describes pets as "companions," thus invoking relatable feelings in the reader. Piece also describes her decision to put Ody to sleep as an "imperfect judgment," letting readers know that it is never is easy for anyone to make a choice like this.
       This article has a more relaxed feel, helping readers connect with the ideas Pierce is trying to convey. The stress of this article is to let readers know that there are other ways to ease the pain in their pets other than euthanasia, and Pierce's diction helps the audience feel like they are not alone.
       The details in this article are quite specific when it comes to describing Ody. All of Ody's ailments are depicted vividly because Pierce wanted her readers to understand the difficulty of the situation. Afterwards, Pierce provides alternatives to this tragic scenario. By adding those details about Ody, it would persuade the reader from giving their own dog euthanasia as a cure for their pain to using one of the other methods, because Pierce obviously suffered from that experience.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/deciding-when-a-pet-has-suffered-enough.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion

Prompt

     One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
     
     In Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, the protagonist Anna faces the decision of saving her sister's life and saving herself. Her parents originally only had two children, Anna's sister Kate and her brother Jesse. After Kate was diagnosed with leukemia, her parents need to find someone who was a genetic match to her so they could donate bone marrow and keep Kate alive. After finding that no one in the family could provide the blood for Kate, her parents decided to have another baby, only this time they selected genes for the child that would ensure a genetic match for Kate. Almost instantly after Anna is born, transfusions begin. Years of painful treatment pass and Anna continues to supply Kate, often having to miss school, losing friends along the way. Seemingly, Anna has had enough of the treatments, and the book begins with Anna asking a lawyer for the rights to her own body over her parents. 
     The story continues with the fight over the custody of Anna's body between Anna and her parents. Anna is trying to free herself from the control of her parents, and argues that she doesn't need to put up with the transplants and longer. She is losing everything else and is left with  a family that seems to only care about Kate's survival rather than hers. While Anna's mom is fighting against Anna in the court case, is causes a divide in the family. 
       As the story goes on, we eventually see that Anna was not selfishly trying to save herself from the pain and her sacrifices, but instead her sister's. Kate had already tried to commit suicide because she was tired of living in such a helpless way, and when a vital kidney transplant was required, Kate made Anna promise to just let her be, which is why Anna began fighting in the first place. 
       In this novel, we see boundaries of ethics stretch. Anna is the result of a genetic enhancement. Is it right to choose what traits your child will have? Essentially, Anna's existence is because of Kate. Is it right for Anna to have to endure these treatments, even if it is to save Kate? When is saving a child's life wrong? This novel transcends the plot by evoking these types of ethical dilemmas in the reader's mind. The struggle for power illustrated here may have readers reconsider what is right and what is wrong. 

Response to Course Material

I had never really given it much thought, but AP Lit has really helped me see what types of ideas authors are trying to convey in their work. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor helped me see different perspectives and underlying motifs in literature. Also, Foster talks about how all literature is connected by common ideas and backgrounds, and how ideas in literature are hardly new, but instead reused in a new and interesting way. This helps me understand literature better, and draw connections with what I already know. The three presentations on the Spruz page showed me how to approach literature in a different way. The AP Test Essay Basics taught me how writing and reading for the AP exam is a very active process, and you always have to be thinking about how ideas are related, and how they are applicable to everyday life. Also, the rhetorical situation must always be considered, which ties back to how authors write with a very definite purpose. Considering the rhetorical situation aids readings and makes writings stronger.