Monday, January 9, 2012

READING HOMEWORK--100 MPH UPSIDE DOWN AND SIDEWAYS

The following link will take you to the short story "100 Miles Per Hour, Upside Down and Sideways" by Rick Bragg. Pay close attention to the vivid detail and imagery Bragg uses to illustrate the significant (and somewhat traumatic) event.

100 Miles Per Hour, Upside Down and Sideways

When you write your response to the story, consider the following questions:

* Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?
* What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
* How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?

RESPONSES DUE BY FRIDAY @ 8 AM. You may post your response in the "Comments" section of this post. Be sure to include your name in your comment so you receive credit. 

24 comments:

  1. JACKY VELAZQUEZ

    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does the author’s word choice reflect this change of heart?
    In the beginning the author talks about his car with awe and amazement of how she was the “mother of all slingshots”, with a great capacity of speed and beauty. However, after the accident, the car was fixed up from the “crumpled white sheet of paper” it had become, and the author then notices that it had been made pretty again but it no longer ran the same, so he sold her.
    His feelings go from admire to disappointment or disgust.

    The author’s word choices such as “loved that car”, “pretty” and “fast” shoes how much he likes his car. In the end, however to show his disappointment he uses words such as “broken”, and “disgusted” show his discontent with the results of his car after the accident.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
    The description in this story helps it give the reader an image and understand the author’s feelings at that time.

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    By the end of this short story I know how the author was and how he felt when his car, his pride failed him. The author tells and shows the details; he tells us by descriptions and shows us through vivid details.

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  2. KORTNEY MARIE LUERA, ENG 111-8

    -When you work hard for something and then it's taken from you in the matter of two weeks it really shows you to value your belongings. Bragg was exstatic when he got his convertible muscle car and abused his advantages with the car by almost killing himself because he couldn't control his urge for speed. He most definately loved his car like it was his girlfriend and now it's gone because he didn't obtain the correct responsibility. He is lucky the Lord was with him and he survived that horid accident. His feelings start at admiring his car and being proud of what he has, to being completely disgusted of his prized possesion. However, by the end of the short story, his last five words "who drove the speed limit" wraps up the entire story in those few words. If Bragg would have just drove the speed limit he wouldn't be in the position of disappointment he is in today.

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  3. In the beginning of the story Bragg talks highly of the car and how it was fast and looked fast too, but at the end of the story he says "She was fast but not real fast". In the end he did not like the car after the crash, he uses the word disgusting to describe it. I feel the description at the beginning helped his story because it shows "Real Life" how even those held in such high esteem had their moments in life. How the story ends in my opinion was a great ending,how he was given back his car in new condition but something, something more than the car itself was missing.

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  4. When Bragg bought his new car he was like a little boy with a new toy. He would not leave its side.The descriptions in the story express how he cherished every momnet in his car. After the accident his view of the car changed. The car did not run as fast as it did before the accident. He decided to sell it. That decision made Bragg sad but he shouldn't have been exceeding the speed limit.

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  5. BRIANNA LAZCANO

    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?
    The authors tone at the beginning of the story was an excited and happy one. He was getting the car he had wanted in so much time and he was really happy about it. Towards the end, after the accident occurred he tried his best to re-establish "her" but once the last hit happened he felt disgusted by the car and no longer wanted "her". The words that the author used really showed how much he once loved "her" and later how much he hated "her".

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    By what the author has described in the story it seems as if he is the kind of person that gets obsessed rapidly over one thing, but once he sees that it is no longer good or it has its bad parts thenhe gets totally over it.

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  6. * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?
    The author's tone is happy to own a car he worked his sweat & tears over. After surviving the car accident, he tries to get back into things with his car but ends up no longer wanting it. Using the word "her" showed a personal affection for the car and using love from hate shows the change of character.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
    Description treats the car as if it were a real person to the author. It helps brings in the reader's interest.
    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    He gets that momentary satisfaction but loses it a bit after the car gets fixed. He does a combination of both to create interest in the story

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  7. Rick Bragg loved his convertible muscle car and repeatedly talked about how incredibly fast it was. After the car had been crashed and repaired, Rick said it was never as fast. His once loving feeling towards the car changed to disgust after the accident and being backed into in a parking lot. Description definitely makes the story more interesting and helps you see exactly what the author wants you to see. You can see just how fast the car looks when it is just sitting in the drive way and see how terrible the car must have looked after the car accident.
    -Sarah Jackson

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  8. * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?
    The authors tone about his car at the beginning of the story was overjoyed. He was so extremely excited that he had such a beautiful and powerful car. At the end of the story though, his tone had changed from overjoyed to disgusted because it had been in such a terrible wreck and even though it had been fixed, it was not the same.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
    Description helped the reader visualize what the car looked like and what it sounded like. It helped the reader imagine what this once beautiful car looked like a crumpled piece of paper after it was hurled through the air at 100mph. It helped

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    At the end the author is glad that his car was able to be fixed but knows that it will never be the same that it once was, so because it is not the car that he loved he decided to sell it. He tells us that he is disgusted by the car because he says that he is and he sells it to a person who obeys the speed limits when a car like that is not meant to follow the rules.

    -Brian Deriquito

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  9. Rick Bragg's tone at the beginning of the story is that of any normal teenager who gets a car which is very happy and excited. He was excited because it was something that he had apparently been eyeing for sometime now. after he wrecked the car and it was "crumpled like a piece of paper" and then got it fixed his tone changed in the sense that his car much like paper after you un crumple it is never there the same and it is sensible in his tone that he was disappointed. The descriptive details that are used help paint an image especially to make the reader understand and feel how he felt about the car. I think that i can really relate to this story because i was apart of a similar situation - Xavier Spells

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  10. FEDRA GHAVAMI
    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does the author’s word choice reflect this change of heart?
    The author started his thoughts in order to describe a young man life story. He had a pretty and fast car that he would feel a lot of power by driving fast with the beautiful car. Although, the car was destroyed after the accident and it didn’t run as good as before. Then his feelings got hurt due to his fault. He never wanted to confess his mistake regarding to the accident. He loved the car but he couldn’t take care of the car or his ambitious very well. Moreover, he called himself broken without mentioning to his faults.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
    The guy has had wrong impressions of having a fast car that pursued him to the wrong track; then he was so disappointment of losing the fake feelings from the car.

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    The author wanted to show how the young man felt about the new, pretty, and fast car. How much the ambitious could effect on his thoughts and behavior. The author went to details to show step by step what would or wouldn’t happen due to right or wrong decisions.

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  11. *Michelle Galaviz*
    At the beginning of the story, the author's tone towards his car was positive, exciting, and overall was in disbelief that he had such a good car. His feelings abruptly changed after his accident. His tone changed from excitement and disbelief to not caring for his car or the feeling it gave him after. I think after his accident he had a change of heart because he realized how careless he was being, and truly realized that God was on his side and was his copilot when he lost control. The description he used that was narrated throughout the story played a big role because it showed how much he felt towards the car, before and after the accident. Description can either make or break a story. The author doesn't reveal much about himself and how he is now about after the selling of his once prized possession. It just goes to show how he learned from that experience.

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  12. Brian Lo ManNok

    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?

    At the beginning he was so anticipated and excited for the car and when he turned the car on and drove it fast made him felt more satisfied with it. The car was pretty and fast, he felt like dating a girl or doing something else did not get as fun as driving his car. After the accident, he totally changed his feeling about the car. The author mentioned ''she is pretty, but she never the same.'' which tells us that the car is still pretty and fast but he no longer had the same feeling as before. He lost the interest on the car and he even sold the car.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?

    The description in the story helps to enhance the detail of his favorite car. The essay clearly describe the car's engine, look, speed and it's fancy to all his classmate. It makes us realize how good is the car to the author and how important is it to him. During the accident, he describe the details of the process. The description helps us to understand how miracle is it for him to survive in a huge accident that nobody ever survive in that situation before.

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?

    By the end of the story, I figure out that he is the person who enjoy short period of satisfaction, but after something happen to it he will get rid of it and lose all the interest in it. If he like something he can do anything for it, but if he doesn't like it, he will just get rid of it. He is also a person who has great memory.

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  13. Jacqueline Pham 111-8January 13, 2012 at 12:44 AM

    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?
    A. In the beginning of the story, the author’s tone is full of admiration for this 1969 convertible car. All of his thoughts and time are completely absorbed in this car. That soon changes once he overcomes a miraculous incident in his life. Since then, he no longer feels a strong connection with the car as he did before. He actually despises the car and decides to sell it. This basically shows that at the end of the story his attitude and tone towards the car completely changed from full of adoration to a loss of interest, especially when he decides to sell the car.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
    A. As the story progresses, he finds himself obsessed with this car and even uses personification along with descriptive writing to illustrate readers that this car was not an object, but like a human to him. When writers use personification in their writing, it helps readers to achieve the idea that non-livings things have human attributes. From this, it simply makes the story seem more interesting and entertaining. The author wanted to show readers how he really felt about his car, and that is he treated his convertible like a person with human characteristics. In this case, description plays a big role and helps readers to better visualize how much the author admired his car.

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    A. From reading this short story, it seems that the author is an attention seeker and also is prideful. He seems like the kind of person who wants the best in everything, which is shown through this car he bought. Although his car was fixed, he felt that his car was not the same as before. The reason why is because it has been through an accident, after the accident he treated his car as if it had an invisible scar, which was of course something he only thought, and made him come to a conclusion to sell the car.

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  14. * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?

    At the beginning of the story the author was living in another world with his new gorgeous car. He loved that car more than anything in the world but once the whole accident occurred his car just was not the same so he lost that love that the car would bring him when she would run smooth. The authors words changed towards the end of the story to emphasize that he was done with the car, he didn't show that excitement and love he had at the beginning of the story.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?

    Description plays a major role in the story, it is what gets the reader going because the descriptions are so great that you can just picture that beautiful car. Description also emphasizes the emotion and the passion the author has towards the car in the beginning of the story and it really helps this story a lot. It helps the story because it keeps the reader hooked and allows them to visualize the incidents.

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    This story helps me learn from the author that he knows about good car because of his great taste in choosing his first car. The story also shows he is a great writer but also he is a funny guy I found plenty of sense of humor. The author showed me he had sense of humor because in the scene of the accident he mentions when he learned about centrifugal force in the ninth grade.

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  15. Trevor Jaggar-
    I feel that the author starts out as a normal teenager. Getting a car has become almost a right of passage in our culture today, it states that that person is no longer a child. Bragg's tone changes very much so in the story. He goes from loveing his car and it beeing the apple of his eye to it becoming just another thing to him after he is in his accendent. Once he is in his accendent he as a person changes, I think. He goes from seeing the car as a symbol to seeing it as a thing, which it is. Looking at the writing itself the story gives you a sense that the author writes or can write about things that are closer to home, some do not do this well it is filled with just there side of a story and that can lead to a bias paper. I feel that a bia paper is a bad one. Buy reading Bragg's short story you can tell that he is a very good writer.

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  16. Maria Cida,
    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does the author’s word choice reflect this change of heart?
    At the beginning, the author used words that described how much he really loved HER(the vehicle, the description of the vehicle made it stand out in such a convincing way I'd say it was magnificent of a ride. All the characteristics of the vehicle and how much he spent on it all give more to the standing of the vehicle. Though at the end when, he sees how "crumbled" it stood after the accident the greatness of this vehicle diminished and the appreciation for it too. The fact that it looked ok after fixing it does not take away the effect of a car not working the same, thus his love for his fast ride decreases. Even when he says that he sold it to a preachers son, who would ride it at speed limit lowers its luxury of speed but ensures it's safety.

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  17. HAZEL LOPEZ
    * Consider the author's tone at the beginning and end of the story. How do his feelings for the car change? How does that author's word choices reflect this change of heart?
    - At the beginning of the story he was so excited and enthusiastic about receiving this car, because it wasn't just a regular car, it was THE car to have. He had worked for it, and done all he could to get this car. It was great,beautiful, and most importantly the car was fast. He definitely got to use it for racing. But towards the end, the car loses that fun, and adventurous factor, mainly after the crash. In a way it discouraged him, because his beautiful car was now just this regular car that didn't go fast anymore. That spark that initially caught his attention was gone, therefore his attitude changed towards the end.

    * What role does description play in this story? Does it help or hurt it?
    - Throughout the story, he used a lot comparisons and similes that helped explain how the car looked, sounded, and felt. All of his descriptions painted a picture of what he was describing or felt at the moment. So I would definitely say it was very helpful and easy to envision this story with all the description involved.

    * How much do you know about the author by the end of this short story? Does the author show you or tell you these details?
    - He really puts emphasis on the joy of driving fast and the adventures he would have doing all of this in his car. So what I got from the author is a sense of adventure and taking risks. He shows towards the end that he is that kind of guy,because he gave the car to a Preacher's son, knowing he wouldn't do much damage to the car, because that son wasn't that kind of guy.

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  18. The tone of the story would definitely make the reader feel the rush he did about the car. It almost makes you feel happy for him that he got the car. His feelings change once he has crashed the car, he almost feels sorry for the car or guilty in some way that it just isnt the same. He says words like "deep down inside" as if the car has a heart or soul and it just really throws a depressing mood into the story. Description plays a huge part into this story because he would really have to do a great job of describing the vehicle so that we can feel the car is as great as he thinks. I did have a pretty good image of how the car looked especially because a corvette is my dream car, I think I mostly envisioned my own but the description the author gave was good. At the end of the story I feel like I know more about the car than the driver itself. I think the author though mayb likes cars or has a need for speed. I think he ultimately sends a message that nothing lasts forever.

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