Summary Of Confluences By Jennifer Sinor

The Essence
Provide a unifying title for these readings collectively, followed by few statements that support the message, or argument, you see emerge from readings as a whole.
“The essence.” All of the readings ask the readers to look deeper inside to the essence of life or the deeper of things.
Whom & What did you read?
“Confluences” by Jennifer Sinor, it was first published in the American Scholar (2008), the magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The story took place Alatna River. The story talks about The death of Sinor’s beloved uncle, and the beginning of a new life; “Once More to The Lake” by E.B. White, it was first published in White’s column for Harper’s Magazine (October 1941). The Story took place in Maine. It talks about a man that understands how the past and the present come together, he realized that the time never stops and it brings so many changes. “Sowers and Reapers” by Jamaica Kincaid, it was first published in The New Yorker Magazine (January 22, 2001), a magazine of literature and the arts. In this essay, the author talks about author admiration of gardens and the stories behind them.

What were some of the Group Members’ first or Gut Reactions to the Works as

you First Read Them?
Some of the group members’ got impressed and curious when we first read the works. These works were somehow a nudge to open our eyes in relation to the gist of everything. The passage contents were so profound; however, they were written in a calm manner. It astounded us.
What “rhetorical modes’ are represented among the readings?
All the reading passages are Narrative because they all have plots, they tell stories, they are very detailed. In addition to narration, all of them present Compare and Contrast mode, they make comparisons between the present and the past, they discover similarities and differences. The stories are somewhat descriptive because the authors used a lot of details.
What Connects the Works?
The works are connected in different ways. First, all of the essays are about the Essence, the overcome, and the understanding of things and life. All these stories ask for reflection. Second, The stories took place in nature environment (gardens and rivers), All of the passages were first published in Magazines, All the authors worked in The New Yorker Magazine. Finally, The authors used the same Rhetorical Modes, they wrote in a calm manner though they wrote a profound message. All of them wrote long sentences and the stories were too detailed
What Ideological, Philosophical, Political and/or Spiritual content Emerges in the Works?
Making those texts inferences we could notice that In ‘’Sowers and reapers’’ emerged a Spiritual content when comparing her garden to the garden of Eden and a Political content when talking about races and politics.

In “Once More to the Lake” emerged the Ideological content when the author says that his son does things in the same way he did when he went to the lake. In “Confluences” emerged the ideological content as well; it is about the last moments of the author’s uncle with her father. In addition, all of these essays present some Philosophical content. All of them requires a deep understanding of things ( Sowers and reapers) and life (confluences and Once More to the Lake). All of these essays ask for a search of the essence, not just the obvious but the abstract

also.

VII. What about the work did you found profound or difficult to accept or ironic or shocking or generally challenging?
In “Once More to the Lake” We found profound the fact that the time never stops, it is always passing and bringing multiple changes. In “confluences” we found irony in how the past, the present, and the future are related. In “Sewers and Reapers” we found interesting and ironic the fact that a caucasian man worked to an African American woman what would have been the opposite in the past. The fact that slaves made gardens were impressive.

VIII. What are some of the best vocabulary terms among the works (collectively)?
For Confluences we have: Chute is a synonym of ramp and slope; Sunstroke, it means heatstroke brought about by excessive exposure to the sun; Reckoning, that means the action or process of calculating or estimating something; Idyllic, that means extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque.
For Once More to the Lake we found: Languidly- drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion; Marred-impair the appearance of; disfigure; Partitions- the action or state of dividing or being divided into parts.
For “Sowers and Reapers” we found: Quadripartite: consisting of four parts; Pang- a sudden sharp pain or painful emotion; Pyromaniac- an obsessive desire to set fire to things.

IX. Which Motion Pictures, Works of Visual Art/Music, Or Literary Works (Novels, Poems, Plays) Do you Associate with these assigned Readings?
We associate “Confluences” to “The Water Boy”. Where Bobby Boucher Jr. decides that life in the swamps is not the life he wants to live, so he decides to go to the city and football against all odds and even behind his mother’s back. we also associated it to “The Pursuit of Happiness” When Chris Gardner makes a big change in his life where he goes from broke father to a happy successful hard working father. The book “In My father’s Footprints” by William J. Turner is related to “Once More To the Lake” in of following the steps of the father. Fishing with Dad: Lessons of Love and Lure from Father to Son by Michael J. Rosen. We associated “Sowers and Reapers” to UNC Chapel Hill Memorial.

X. Which of the readings was best, and why?
We found “Once More To the Lake” The best because it made us conscious of the passage of time. We could learn that time is always changing and life is going with it. Now we are as we are, tomorrow we will be totally different. This text opened our eyes in terms of enjoying our youth while we have the opportunity; however, we have to do it intelligently so that we will not regret tomorrow. Reading it, we were able to understand that the present is not that far from the future. Just as our grandparents and parents we will grow older and die.