Essay On Clay We Are Made

What makes a personal essay personal and what makes a short story a story? Though both are very compelling in different ways, they hold their own unique ways that makes them personal and a short story. In my two pieces, “Of Clay We Are Made,” by Isabel Allende, being a short story based on a true story and “The Man in the Water,” Roger Rosenblatt, being a personal essay also based on a true story. Sharing their similarities and having their own qualities that one another don’t have. These two pieces are of how the genres relate to the author’s purpose and identifying the theme of both pieces while comparing and contrasting them.

In both “Of Clay We Are Made,” and “ The Man in the World,” they both come with their genres of their true based

story and personal essay. For the first, which is the short story, would be the type of genre that it carries throughout the telling of the story. For example, it quotes, “ On November 13, 1985, the long-dormant Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted in Colombia, South Africa. Molten rock and hot gasses melted the volcano’s thick ice cap and sent deadly mudslides down its slopes…” (Allende 256) Here where it quotes its information, is where all its background information of the true event actually happened. This background information supports my genre because it’s not only telling the story, but also showing us the information behind the story that’s being told. In all, for “Of Clay We Are Made,” this is why I think that the short story relates to the author's purpose following with the fact that short stories are being defined of the sequence of order. Here, what holds together a short story is the foundation, which hold and ties everything together. These start with the journal entries leading to free writing, rants and all leads up to what we call a story.

In “The Man the Water,” it comes across to the type of genre it carries throughout its personal essay.

The genre of this would follow through a personal essay that carries itself differently than any other like a short story. For Example, it quotes, “The disaster described in this essay occurred on Wednesday, January 13, 1982, in the late afternoon, Washington D.C., was blanketed in wet flurries when Air Florida flight 90 took off from National Airport (now Ronald Reagan) National Airport. Just after takeoff the plane hit the Fourteenth Street Bridge during rush hour, crushed five cars and tipped over a truck, and then crashed into the Potomac River. Seventy-eight people died, including four motorists. Of the seventy-nine people aboard the plane, only five survived-four passengers and one flight attendant. The probable cause of the crash was ice on the plane’s wing.” (Rosenblatt 272) Here is where it quotes that this story is an essay that is based on a true story. This information given is the background information of what the background was about and of what happened. I would say that overall, this personal essay relates to the author’s purpose following with the fact of a personal essay being a little more descriptive. A personal essay mainly focuses on the thoughts, beliefs, values, and why there is always a bit of action. Overall, this is why I would say that a personal essay has its unique qualities from what a short story

does.

Both of these two pieces of writing do come to an agreement where they both have their unique qualities that one another doesn’t and come to where they share some similarities. I Would say that the short story, “Of Clay We Are Made,” has a theme of we cannot move on as a person if our internal demons are not dealt with first. For example, it quotes, “ We watch on our screens the footage captured by the assistant’s camera, in which he was up to his knees in muck, a microphone in his hand, in the midst of bedlam of lost children, wounded survivors, corpses and devastation.” (Allende 258-259) Here it shows the theme in the short story which tells us how they needed to fight internally and not just deal with what comes first. In the personal essay, “The Man in the Water,” I would say that the theme carries upon itself. It would be even though nature won against man in this case, men are powerless against nature, but no man can fight nature until he breaks.” For example, it quotes, “Somebody had to go in the water,” which phrases the theme of the personal essay. This shows the theme here because it explains where someone had to step up and be the bigger one and save as many lives as possible before his. Overall this is why I would choose these as my themes for both my short story and personal narrative.

All in all I would have to say that to sum it up with the short story and personal essay is that they both have their differences. In which they follow up as a story coming together and being able to predict what happens next. Where a personal essay is personal where it has a meaning to be told and had lots of dialogue. In conclusion to wrap it up, these two pieces are of how the genres relate to the author’s purpose and identifying the theme of both pieces and comparing and contrasting them. Overall, The both have very compelling ways of how an author want sto look at how they want to write their story; as a short story or even a personal essay, which either would turn out great, just how you want you outline and format to be depends on you.