Westbury Court By Edwidge Danticat Summary

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Westbury Court by Edwidge Danticat
Westbury Court by Edwidge Danticat is more of an extended anecdote than an essay. The whole essay consists of one story, explaining one moment in the author, Danticat’s, life. Only the last few paragraphs take place in a different time, but they still exist solely for the sake of reminiscing over the issue taking place in the rest of the essay. Despite this, the essay is still able to communicate several overarching issues in society, as well as a thoughtful and intriguing theme, idea, and “lesson”, of a sorts.
I found this essay incredibly interesting, both in content and in style. Before reading Westbury Court I hadn’t known that an essay could be styled in this manner. Though reading the essays in the Prentice Hall Reader had increased the breadth and scope of my knowledge of the various types of essays, I had still always considered essays to be written in a specific way. That is, that they would include an introduction, thesis, …show more content…

Westbury Court contains an exposition (similar to an introduction), rising actions (body paragraph), climax (main point of the essay), falling actions (body paragraph), and resolution (conclusion). I hadn’t previously realized the parallels between these two types of writing; after all, one is often fictional and the other is not, one is meant to entertain, the other is to inform. When truly comparing them, however, they are almost overwhelmingly similar. Both introduce and close their ideas, both use stylistic elements to prove their points, both provide themes, or central messages of what the work means and its importance. Through this essay, I have come to realize the similarities of these type of writings. Reading Westbury Court has expanded my idea of what it takes to have a successful essay, and how stories and narratives can, in their own way, be an essay as

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