Elizabeth Mccracken's Desiderata

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In the nonfiction story "Desiderata," by Elizabeth McCracken, the central idea is that the value and importance of something may change due to time, circumstances, or when regarded by different people. McCrackin mentions some anecdotes throughout the selection. In one, she says that she has letters that have informed her of things she wished she didn't know, such as one of her grandmother’s sisters wanting to sue the widow of their brother. She states that she knows they were quarrelsome people, yet the action still comes across as merely petty. In contrast, she says there are letters that can “break your heart.” An example of a letter like this was one that her aunt had written regarding her bad and degrading health. Mccrackin knew from the …show more content…

“It was one of the most beautiful love letters i’ve ever read,” stated McCrackin. It showed her a side of her grandfather that she never would have imagined. The fact that she talks about letters of this type, letters that can break your heart, with so much passion shows the great importance she finds in certain similar things tied to her family’s past. In the beginning of this writing, McCracken states the fact that Desiderata are “the items you need for an archive to make it useful.” “Useful, not complete,” she says. Later on in the piece, she asked herself if the love letter from her grandfather, in which she had recently uncovered, was more of a desideratum for her or for her father. Her father had the collection of love letters written by McCracken's grandparents. Because of this, and her father's mild reaction to the letter, it can be stated that that single letter was merely a piece working to make his collection more complete. She then goes on to say she needs and desires this letter, which by definition is the meaning of a desideratum. An observation made by the author was of the contents written by her grandmother on a simple piece of

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