George Saunders, “The Importance of Kindness”

They employ techniques of narrative.

     George Saunders does this especially well in his speech. He starts off by describing this girl that moved to his school.  The imagery is strong when he says, "Ellen was small, shy, and she wore these blue cats eye glasses that, at the time, only old ladies wore.  When nervous, which is pretty much always, she had a habit of taking a strand of hair in her mouth and chewing on it" ("The Importance of Kindness").  Sharing this information with us allows the listener/ reader to get a mental picture what Ellen looked like and how she acted, adding to her characterization.
     After Saunders is done describing her, he moves on to the fact that she was bullied.  He supports this claim with dialogue from other kids and what they'd say to her.  For example, the kids would say, "your hair taste good?" ("The Importance of Kindness").  When Saunders shares this piece of evidence with us, we, as readers, feel more sympathetic for Ellen.  The fact that he gave an example of what the kids would say gets our attention and is more powerful than just saying she was bullied.  It was previously mentioned that she chewed on her hair, but now we know that she was bullied for that reason, furthering Ellen's characterization.
     The greater idea is apparent by the end of the speech.  Saunders says, "what I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.  Those moments when another human being was there in front of me, suffering, and I responded sensibly, reservedly, mildly" ("The Importance of Kindness").  The moral of his story was to not be a bystander-to help others in need when they need it, instead of just letting it happen.

They offer surprising information and observations.

     Saunders surprised me when he said that what he regretted was that he failed to help Ellen and be kind to her.  You would think that'd he would regret something that seemed bigger, like where he went to college or something, but instead he regrets not standing up to people and not being kind.  He used a matter-of-fact tone when he said that's what he regretted, since he gave examples of why he shouldn't regret how he treated Ellen.  He says, "relative to most of the other kids, I was actually pretty nice to her, I never said an unkind word to her, in fact I sometimes even mildly defended her" ("The Importance of Kindness").  

     

Vignette from Catcher in the Rye

The vignette that I chose was from chapter 16, when Holden is talking about the museum.  Within this vignette, Holden says, "the floor was all stone, and if you had some marbles in your hand and you dropped them, they bounced like madmen all over the floor and made a helluva racket, and the teacher would hold up the class and go back to see what was going on" (Salinger 134).  This moment within the vignette was especially powerful, because you get to see a character trait of Holden, through showing, not telling.  By dropping the marbles, you can tell that he is not one to follow rules, and that he wants to do his own thing. It also shows that Holden wants to be funny to others, because his classmates probably laughed when this happened.

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Option 1

As the article says, "you just might have a rattle, as well" ("Your Rattle No One Else Can Hear?").  For Holden, this rattle is the death of his brother, Allie.  Although he died a few years ago, Holden is still sensitive about his death and is depressed that he no longer has anyone to talk to. Allie's baseball mitt that Holden keeps helps him deal with his death in its own way. The article is really about things that shake up our lives that we're dealing with, but maybe other people aren't dealing with and/or can't relate to the pain you're feeling.

Not many people know about the baseball mitt; Holden keeps it to himself and doesn't share it with others unless he's really close with them.  He says, "all I had to do was change Allie's name so that nobody would know it was my brother and not Stradlater's" (Salinger 44).  In the article, the salesman couldn't hear the rattle.  This is symbolizing people that aren't close to the author, and how the salesman doesn't share the same pain as the author does.  Then, there are also people who do know about the baseball mitt, just like the husband in the article, since he heard the rattling of the car, and it affected him, too.

The author of the article uses the simple rattle of the car to push forward the greater idea of other people not understanding pain in our lives to help simplify it.  Most of us have experienced how annoying a car rattle is, and we know what it's like to try and show the rattling (or something else) to someone and it's gone.

The loss of his bother has left Holden without anyone to talk to.  In chapter 9 we see him trying to communicate with the taxi driver when he says, "by any chance, do you know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?" (Salinger 67). This proves that the death of his brother has rattled up his life.