Analyzing John Wideman's Essay 'Our Time'
Ashley Senger
English 110
Our Time Paper 2nd Draft
January 31, 2011
John Wideman’s essay “Our Time” is an intriguing, emotional piece about his brother and the hardships faced while living in a rough neighborhood. Wideman writes this story through the perspective of three people; Wideman’s brother Robby, his mother, and himself as a writer and a person. Wideman tells his story by using creative writing styles to help emphasize the point he is trying to get across in telling his brother Robby’s story. In this essay, the reader will learn not only about Robby and how his life takes a toll for the worse, but also about Wideman personally, and his struggles to create this piece.
Wideman starts out this story by telling the readers …show more content…
His essay/storytelling style is made more creative by using different perspectives and different languages to portray the different narrators. The difference between Wideman and Robby’s language is very distinguishable. Widemans language consists of concise sentences and large words showing that he is well educated whereas Robby uses slang in his language. The language differences make the reader stay on their toes while reading. Robby’s language style particularly challenged me because I was not familiar with the slang. This made me as a reader, go back and re-read. I also went as far as looking up some of the words to gain a better understanding of his unfamiliar language. “For the company of his cut buddies after the funeral” the term “cut buddies” stood out to me. I researched under the urban dictionary. There were two definitions, a person who you have sex with but isn’t your girlfriend, and a person who you cut profits with when you steal. Out of the two definitions I am still not sure which one applies in this part of the story. The essay consists of fragments of stories that guide you in a unique way to learn about Robby and why he ended up in prison. This style of writing was confusing as a reader in the beginning. The reader is thrown into a story with no character set up and no choice but to read on and hope to gain understanding. This was a strategy performed by Wideman to keep the reader interested. The reader had no choice but to continue reading and uncover more pieces that would ultimately deliver a story. Wideman outstandingly writes as if he is breaking thought all the way through the essay. It wasn’t until Wideman did this, that I understood a little what was going on with the story. He exclaims to himself how important it is for him to get Robby’s point across, but he ends up writing an essay about himself, writing a story about Robby.
English 110
Our Time Paper 2nd Draft
January 31, 2011
John Wideman’s essay “Our Time” is an intriguing, emotional piece about his brother and the hardships faced while living in a rough neighborhood. Wideman writes this story through the perspective of three people; Wideman’s brother Robby, his mother, and himself as a writer and a person. Wideman tells his story by using creative writing styles to help emphasize the point he is trying to get across in telling his brother Robby’s story. In this essay, the reader will learn not only about Robby and how his life takes a toll for the worse, but also about Wideman personally, and his struggles to create this piece.
Wideman starts out this story by telling the readers …show more content…
His essay/storytelling style is made more creative by using different perspectives and different languages to portray the different narrators. The difference between Wideman and Robby’s language is very distinguishable. Widemans language consists of concise sentences and large words showing that he is well educated whereas Robby uses slang in his language. The language differences make the reader stay on their toes while reading. Robby’s language style particularly challenged me because I was not familiar with the slang. This made me as a reader, go back and re-read. I also went as far as looking up some of the words to gain a better understanding of his unfamiliar language. “For the company of his cut buddies after the funeral” the term “cut buddies” stood out to me. I researched under the urban dictionary. There were two definitions, a person who you have sex with but isn’t your girlfriend, and a person who you cut profits with when you steal. Out of the two definitions I am still not sure which one applies in this part of the story. The essay consists of fragments of stories that guide you in a unique way to learn about Robby and why he ended up in prison. This style of writing was confusing as a reader in the beginning. The reader is thrown into a story with no character set up and no choice but to read on and hope to gain understanding. This was a strategy performed by Wideman to keep the reader interested. The reader had no choice but to continue reading and uncover more pieces that would ultimately deliver a story. Wideman outstandingly writes as if he is breaking thought all the way through the essay. It wasn’t until Wideman did this, that I understood a little what was going on with the story. He exclaims to himself how important it is for him to get Robby’s point across, but he ends up writing an essay about himself, writing a story about Robby.