The Other Choice

 In Everyday Use, Maggie and Dee are examples of the two extremes. Maggie is a model for people that stick only to their cultural roots/traditions without branching out. Dee on the other hand represents the people that have completely left their cultural background. Many believe that you have to choose one of those two polar opposites, however that is not the case. Their is a third choice.

 

Believe it or not, the other choice is all around s today. This other choice is the group of people that respect and uphold their cultural background, but at the same time venture out into today's society. Personally, I see these people all over the place, in and out of school. This is mostly seen in the youth because they get the nice blend of culture when they go home to their parents and when they go to school everyday and experience the modern world.

 

Personally, I see myself as Dee. As a child, I felt extreme pride of my roots and heritage, but as time passed, I slowly but surely was sucked into the modern world and I lost my pride. I think this is because my parents and I have lived here so long that even they have begun to lose touch with their roots. I believe that I should start celebrating my heritage more by first learning about my background. Then I should experience it myself, for example, i should should visit Chinatown more often and experience  the culture of my people more. I believe that this must be done to get myself back to how I was when I was a child. 

 

Stealing From The Best 

The Fall of the House of Usher is the original haunted house story that has many different techniques to make the reader's blood chill as they read the story. Some of them are so subtle and simple, but make a huge difference in the effect of the story. Honestly, because of the techniques used, this story is scarier than about 90% of the horror movies that have been released in the last 5-10 years. Here are some of those techniques that I would steal from Poe if i was making my own haunted house story.

The first technique Poe used was the unclear ending. What exactly happened? Did the sister and the main character's friend actually die? Did they even exist? That was absolute brilliance from Poe. He did not guide you through the story. This allows many different interpretations of what actually happened, which will leave the world guessing until the end of time.   

Another techniques I would steal from Poe is his use of extreme detail to describe the house. He described not only the appearance in such great detail that the image is burned in my head, but he described the feelings that the house was giving off. He did an excellent job of putting the reader at the doorsteps of that house.

This one isn't a technique but it was equally as effective as the techniques were. It is the absolutely disgusting mind that Poe actually has. When he described the family tree as " Having no branches" I was utterly repulsed. It took the story to a whole new level of disturbing. To realize that the brother and sister were lovers just sent shivers down my spine.

The next technique is the use of very few characters in the story. This technique has a profound effect because it allows the reader to focus only on the important character and not be distracted by any unimportant characters. It makes the reader care more about the characters because that is all you get!

The last technique is the background characters given for each charter. this allows the reader to understand fully who these characters are and why they are in the predicament that they are in at the start of the story.

The last technique is the background characters given for each charter. this allows the reader to understand fully who these characters are and why they are in the predicament that they are in at the start of the story.