Saturday, August 28, 2010
Nancy Mairs, On Loving Men
In your opinion, what is a main point of Nancy Mairs' personal narrative, "On Loving Men?" What audience is she writing to? Where does she use an emotional appeal (pathos) to her readers? What resources does Mairs draw on to describe her teenage self? What other writing devices does she employ? Where and how does she use dialogue? Where and how does she use anecdotes to tell her story?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In my opinion I think the main point in Nancy Maris’ personal narrative, “On loving men”, is that she had many different experiences with the way men had treated her and loved her that he was always confused or looking for more in a relationship. Nancy starts off talking about the first man in her life, her father and the way he had left her and their family on accident. It was the beginning of the men and relationships in her life that would later occur. The audience Nancy is writing to is the people (mostly girls or ladies) who have ever been in love or thought they were in love. She is directing her attention to people who have been hurt and hurt others in relationships. Nancy uses an emotional appeal (pathos), when she tells the story of her father and grandfather, and how they had mistreated their loved ones. Another use of pathos is when Nancy expands on her relationship with Caleb, they way they fell in love and how their relationship escalated. Nancy uses dialogue when writes about herself as a teenager looking back in her dairies. She is almost embarrassed that she once was a young fool who would write such absurd emotions.
ReplyDeleteGood, Taylor. Can you point to any specific uses of language that arouse emotion? What about calling her father Daddy continually throughout the essay? Personally I find the way she makes fun of herself, the slight self-deprecation in her tone, to be very appealing.
ReplyDelete"On loving men," in my opinion is very good and well written. Nancy Mairs, the author, writes to what would at first appear to be women, specifically single women, but at a second glance could also be her own audience, as we know her history with journals. Mairs uses pathos a lot throughout the memoir. She uses it when describing her father and grandfather, when talking about her crushes and boyfriends, and especially uses pathos and relates to young women when she idolizes men and the clique relationship. When describing herself as a teenage girl, Mair uses quotes and excerpts from her childhood diary to set up anecdotal details to describe how her love of men changed and evolved. Mair uses unique ideas, like putting herself into her rapist/boyfriend's head. She uses this backward perspective to analyze her female ideas about men and relationships more objectively. This is done really well when she almost justifies him raping her as a result of instinctive reaction to bottled up desires from her sexually teasing him. Although she does not really use too much dialogue, when she does use it is it brief, Mairs does a good job of explaining the situations with the brief text without using direct dialogue, giving a more personal side to the memoir with always reestablishing her narration privileges. She, then, would expand from her dialogue, used as almost an introduction, to an anecdote to support her thesis. Also, one really original quality from this paper is Mairs quotation in the beginning and reference and comparison at the end to "Bartleby; the Scrivener," a very popular short story by Herman Melville (which I really like).
ReplyDeleteIt is my opinion that Mairs' narrative "On Loving Men" is exactly what he title says. She recalls and relives all of the different types of men that she has met over the years. Some thin, some fat, some tall, some short, but all could never fulfill the yearning for true love that she felt in her heart. The point I think is to teach young lovers that there is more to life than sacrificing everything to find our true love. Maris even says that she wishes she did her extracurriculars with more devotion and attention, rather than trudging through them while masked by her desire or love. I also think she is trying to say that sometimes, even if you think you have met the "one", you never truly know if you have because as humans we tend to change our minds a lot. SO she says that maybe you have to try out all the wrong ones to know when you found the right one. Her writing is geared towards young girls and women, who are lovesick, heartbroken because of love, and even those in love. In order to appeal to her readers, she uses her own experiences with love, that most people who have ever been in love, or a love-like situation have felt. Mairs definitely uses hyperboles and personifications and similies to get her point across. She uses dialogue when she refers to her diary, and uses these diary entries to to tell of all of the stories she has about men and the love-hate relationship she has with them.
ReplyDelete"On Loving Men" is a very descriptive memoir by Nancy Mairs, about all the men in her life. Each of the men she talks about has had some significant impact in her life, even if he played a minor role. This narrative is very appealing to the audience, who I found to be women in general, without a specific age range. I think the memoir gives adolescent girls something to think about for when the begin to fall in love and gives elder women something to reflect on. Mairs uses pathos, emotional appeal, to relate to her audience. She is very honest about her emotions and does not hold anything back. This creates trust between the reader and the writer. Her experiences can be relatable on many levels and this makes the narrative very personal. She also uses ethos, because all of her thoughts are from her own life, she explains them first hand and gives the reader deep insight. Mairs' writing style is very appealing toward women and I think she explains the progressions of her relationships very well. She uses dialogue in significant parts, such as when asking her mother where her father went and when talking to Caleb. The dialogue emphasizes the importance these situations had in her life.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"On Loving Men" is about how the death of Mairs' father as well as fictional romances shaped her perception of love and consequently affected her relationships with men. Mair is writing to women of all ages, but especially to young adults infatuated with the idea of a fairytale romance. Throughout the narrative, Mairs creates pathos with her honesty. Her candidness makes her more relatable to readers. Using her old diary as a resource, Mair creates a vivid illustration of her teenage self. All of her anecdotes relate back to the one recurring idea; Mair, like many others, formed her idea of love around the generic, dramatic romances seen in entertainment.
ReplyDelete"On Loving Men" is a well written, descriptive narrative about Mairs' male relationships. She evolves from her love for her father to her long history of booyfriends. She is writing to women, though I believe she is also writing to herself. She is reflecting on these occurances to help women analyze their own relationships, while figuring out her own relationships. She uses emotional appeal throughout the piece, which helps the readers identify with her. Most women have had some of the same experiences that Mairs' has had, and if they haven't, they soon will. Mairs' writes like she's talking to her best friend. Using dialogue helps her writing style. She uses dialogue in very distinct places. This helps her writing to be easily identified with and helps her get her point across efficiently.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, after reading Nancy Maris' "On Loving Man", I feel this story is very passionate. As the story title states, the story talks about different types of men, whom Nancy has encountered throughout her life. This memoir uses rhetorical appeals a lot, especially pathos (the emotional appeal). From Nancy’s story, the way her father and her grandfather treated her in her childhood has a huge impact on her relationship later in her life. Her father left her accidentally when she was only a little child. Her father is the first person in her relationship with men. Nancy analyzes the relationship between men and women from the perspective of women, and by using emotional appeal, she tries to convince the audience, mostly consist of ladies who have been hurt from their relationship, to love again.
ReplyDelete