Essay Analysis - Different Techniques Are Used in Writing

An essay (2010), according to Answers.com is "a short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author." Different techniques are used in writing in essays such as rhythm, symbolism, use of imagery, and vocabulary choices. Although essays are considered "non-fiction," writers are also shaping these writings for emotional believe or think, wanting the reader to feel for the character(s). As with poetry and fiction writings, essays also use metaphors and similes.

The Indian Basket, written by Mickey Roberts, is about a woman seeing an Indian basket at a garage sale. In seeing this basket, she thinks back to the day in 1939 when her mother, and her great-grandmother walked door-to-door selling these baskets while dragging her along carrying baskets. The essay tells the story of how the Indian tribe used to weave baskets, and trade them in for clothing while knocking on doors. The grandmother would weave these baskets by hand, in different shapes and sizes, so they could have different uses. The name of the tribe was usually what followed the baskets, but not the name of the Indian, who weaved them. The essay also explains to the reader about the price of the baskets. When trading baskets for clothing, this is what needs to be done to survive, and many years later these same baskets were sold for hundreds of dollars, for collecting.

The writer starts off the essay at a garage sale, when a woman picks up a basket, and asks the price and where it came from. This leads to a flashback of this woman as a little girl with her mother and great-grandmother selling these baskets. The writer mentions, "we probably appeared to be pitiful people," giving the reader the vision of these Indian women appearing homely. The writer also states the Indians are selling their treasures, part of their culture, for just a few articles of clothing. This was something that needed to be done for the tribe to survive.

This essay gives a sense of what needed to be done to survive. The grandmother, the creator of the baskets spoke only in the native tongue, nobody knowing how she managed to survive the changing times and culture. The grandmother seemed to be the woman the other females went to for help, she seems to be the woman who stuck by the culture in which she was raised. The basket(s) in the story seem to be a symbol of the past, the way life was. Holding the basket the women remembers her childhood and the women in her family working hard for so little.

An essay written by John R. Coleman, titled From Man to Boy, tells the story of uneducated people. Not the uneducated who did not attend school, but the uneducated, which did go to school, but speak down on others for the work he or she does. A young man speaks of billboards that used to state, "BOY. Drop out of school and that's what they'll call you the rest of your life."