by Sunday, post 3 responses to your classmates' discussion posts with at least 100 words PER POST.

* by Sunday, post 3 responses to your classmates' discussion posts with at least 100 words PER POST. These responses should EXTEND/ EXPAND the conversation, not merely say, "Good job." Pretend this is a real class room discussion. Disagree, asking leading questions, take risks, and be respectful.

**And finally, be sure not to repeat what someone has already posted. If you post late, then you are tasked with coming up with *original* points/examples!

Essay from my classmate

Essay 1. name ：Ciana Rogers

Ha Jin’s voice is humble. Reflecting that of an immigrant working to make their place in America. As English is his second language the word choices are simple and easy to follow. However, he is clearly educated and utilizes more colorful vocabulary; for example, “vivacious” and “imminent”. He is able to describe pivotal moments in his life, showing the transition from China to America and his acceptance of his new surroundings. At first, everything smelled “like a combination of chemicals and perfumes” but soon he was “unable to detect it anymore”. During his walk along the river, he describes his home land being “overused and exhausted” compared to an“extraordinarily generous” America.

The main character could easily be described as hard working, determined and courageous. With English as his second language, he was able to buckle down on his studies and gain admittance to an American literature program, then continue onto a university in the United States. Jin continued to show great perseverance as he describes his struggle to work and save money in order to bring his family to America.

The events of this essay are written in chronological order but occurred in the past. The author uses time specific phrases, “In 1982” as well as “in the winter of 1984”. He also utilizes non specific transitional phrases to show the passing of time, “The next spring”, “At the end of the semester” and “The next afternoon”. Jin spoke in great detail about the long process of working, earning and saving money to bring his wife to America. From the various custodial duties of “washing glass doors, picking up trash from the offices” and his wife spending months bribing officials to get her visa approved by performing tasks. The last line of the essay brings the reader back to a more recent time and a hopefulness that their time apart will soon end.

One of the responses about this essay from my classmate:

Hi Ciana, 

I have not read this story but I like the way you explain how his word choice comes from his background and where he is from but also that he is intelligent it shows that you were really paying attention to word choice and that you learned the personality of the writer based on that.  

You also made a good point on how his 'telling details' of how is view of America was changing was as simple as him not being able to smell the harsh chemicals anymore and how he was seeing his own country in a different light as well. 

essay 2. name  TUYEN THANH THI DANG

Ha Jin's voice in the essay is fairly easy to understand and straight to the point. As he describes himself as a student who uses English as a second language, which fits with his writing style. He doesn't show a large pool of vocabulary, however the word choice he uses is simple but efficient. 

In my opinion, Ha Jin can be described as a humble and hardworking man who would push himself forward to earn his education degree. It's due to the reason that he's willing to experience something new in his life such as going to America on his own despite his lack of confidence at first. Also, leaving his wife and kid behind for four years is not an easy decision at all which shows that he's very committed at what he wants.

In the middle of his essay, Ha Jin's perspective on his new life in America has changed by observing small details about the life in his new country. For example, he saw a fisherman who apparently only fishes for fun, quickly it came to Ha Jin's mind that the way the nature in China is abused and wasted. In this particular detail, the way he writes and tells us somehow indicate us that he's totally surprised and find it interesting on his own. 

Ha Jin does a very good job on describing how making a lot of money can change a person's life and abandon the original plan they have when they first come to the United States. He tells us about how students who stopped participating in their courses and eventually dropped out of college to pursuit making money on their own. 

Overall, I think Ha Jin's writing style gives us a clear picture of the settings and sequel of events in this essay. For example, he describes the Boeing smell as " a typical American odor, sharp and artificial, like a combination of chemicals and perfumes", and the sky is "was clear and high, much higher than the sky in China, thanks to the absence of smog". Again, his word choice is extremely easy to understand but very well done. As of setting up the sequel of events, through out his essay he exclusively uses past tense to tell us about his experiences. Then, after every new experience he had and through his observation, he's able to make decisions and take actions for his life. For example, he discovers that some Chinese students are allowed to have their spouses with them, so he tried and figured out his ways to bring his wife over. Which lead to how he has to work extra hours in order to earn money for that purpose. 

essay 3 name DEVON M MCGEOUGH

In my father's life it seems like Carver is mostly just recalling the sad parts of him and his dad's relationship. To me the tone of voice he is using for this story makes the seem kind of sad, he doesn't talk bad about his dad he just is explaining all the adversity that his family faced. One of the main this he keeps talking about are the jobs that his dad had and the challenges that he had to deal with while working there.

When he starts getting older he realizes that his family may be poorer than many others. “The first house I clearly remember living in, …..had an outdoor toilet…….After a while, though, everyone went to indoor plumbing until, suddenly, our toilet was the last outdoor one in the neighborhood. I remember the shame I felt when my third-grade teacher, Mr. Wise, drove me home from school one day. I asked him to stop at the house just before ours.”  he is embarrassed that his family is the only one in the neighbourhood that can't afford to switch to indoor plumbing.

Caver does a good job at making his feelings known throughout the text. Toward the beginning of the story it seems to me that Carver has no understanding for the situation that his family is in. then towards the end he starts to see and try to find similarities between his dad and himself. Then when his dad dies he wishes he would have been closer to his dad before he had passed. I appreciated how he ordered the events in the story