Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 6, 1985-1986 Page: 74
225 p. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Journal of Advanced Composition
would form small pools until the heat turned them into streams. Then
the vapor would rise to his mouth and choke him with its sticky sweaty
taste.
The sensory details create the boy's jungle milieu: "the rain careened;"
the earth was "hot [and] musky;" and droplets formede] small pools."
Then the writer describes the milieu's effect on the boy: "the vapor
would rise to his mouth and choke him... ." One gains a precise sense
of the boy's imagined physical environment and mental state. An-
other student, describing a tree carved with initials in front of her
childhood home, clearly suggests the kind of tree, the color and
texture of its bark, and the exact shape of the engravings on the tree:
Looking a few yards to the left, I recognize a tall, sturdy silver-maple
tree. it is scarred with the initials of children who have long since moved
away. With five guarded steps, I am within reach of the tremendous
olive and cinnamon brown monument. My fingers begin searching the
rough texture of the bark. Here are my sister's initials, bold and heavy.
After passing over several other monograms, my probing fingers come
to an abrupt halt. They are still here. Positioned just underneath the
lowest branch, three initials, JLN protrude....
The reader travels back in time with the writer visualizing precisely a
setting from the latter's childhood.
Not only did students' meditations excel in descriptive detail,
but the unifying concepts also were quite original. For example, one
student wrote a meditation comparing popcorn to the state of the
human personality: the corn's outer hull suggests the roles that people
adopt while the hard core symbolizes the unchanging kernel of
personality. Another student, writing about the door to his room,
pictures it as a sentinel engaged in a "silent vigil," witnessing, "listen-
ing and looking .., .unable to communicate any feelings that are within
the human capacity to experience." This sphinx-like state he con-
cludes constitutes one of "life's mysteries." Another student nicely
describes how fingers reveal a person's character:
[They] are adaptive. [They] adjust to the personality that owns and
operates [them]. [They] are grubby, short and scarred on an eight year
old boy. Yet on a shy teenage girl, [they] become sweaty and nervous,
and [their] nails are bitten to the quick. On a rich, sophisticated woman,
[they] are long and thin, polished with slick, red paint, adorned with
elaborate diamonds and emeralds, and skilfully balancing a cigarette
between [their] tips....74
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Lally, Tim D. P. Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 6, 1985-1986, periodical, 1988; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28598/m1/80/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .