This reflection examines five nonfiction works assigned in a literature course, analyzing how authors convey truth through personal narrative and emotional resonance. The paper explores Martin Luther King Jr.'s rhetorical strategies in "Letter from Birmingham Jail," the immigrant experience and loss of cultural tradition in "Who Will Light the Incense When Mother's Gone?", the tension between childhood faith and adult skepticism in Langston Hughes's "Salvation," the internal conflict of returning home in Joan Didion's "On Going Home," and the dignity of labor in Gretel Ehrlich's "About Men." The reflection concludes that effective nonfiction relies on the writer's ability to balance factual truth with imaginative engagement, allowing readers to recognize themselves in the experiences described.
When a person reads nonfiction, it is important to remember that the writing is true. The author has taken a true event and put it on paper. The stories assigned for reading this week were all nonfiction, each written with the intent to tell about an event that had taken place at some point in the author's life. For the most part, the stories were engaging and kept me focused on them, but as any reader knows, there is always one or two that one connects with more than the others.
While reading the different stories, I could see what each author was trying to get us, the readers, to understand. For example, in Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to get the clergymen—who had asked the Black community to stop their demonstrations—to understand why there is a need for this behavior. He explains that if the situation were reversed and the shoe were on their foot, would they wait, or would they do what his group is doing by having peaceful demonstrations? Martin Luther King Jr. uses a personal touch to get people to understand why they must engage in this type of demonstration. By telling the clergymen to imagine that the brutality was happening to those they loved and then ask them if it was unnecessary, King was making it personal.
King tells the clergy: "When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and your brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society," then they can understand the Black community's legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Through this vivid imagery and direct address, King transforms an abstract debate about protest tactics into a concrete moral reality.
The story of being imprisoned for a reason meant to better a certain community was very touching. In "Who Will Light the Incense When Mother's Gone?", a story that relates to a community of displaced people, the mother talks to her sister about how a tradition handed down to her and many older people from Vietnam will fade away when the two of them die. The families moved to America to make a better life for their children, but in doing so, they have lost some of their heritage. The mother wants to keep the tradition going but knows it will not happen.
This situation occurs so many times when immigrants move to another country—some of their traditions get lost. This writer is telling how his mother wished that someone was willing and able to carry on what had been handed down to her. How does one get others to carry on traditions when they have been removed from that culture for so long? I suppose we just try to hand down what we can and hope the younger generation will try to follow our lead.
In the story "Salvation," Langston Hughes was trying to live and follow his aunt's traditions. He wrote about how his aunt told him he would see Jesus, and when he didn't, it was as though he was disappointing her, so he pretended to see Jesus. In a way, he was carrying on his aunt's beliefs even though they were not what he believed. Hughes wrote a great story about what a child will do to please an adult, but as he became older, it causes him some concern. He cannot get over the fact that he lied about something most consider sacred. Knowing he did not have a sighting of Jesus to confirm his being saved, and that others lied about seeing Jesus, makes Hughes certain there is no God.
When a child does something to please an adult, it can cause some type of anxiety. With Hughes, it seems as if he thought about the issue when he was still young, but as he got older, his perspective on what happened changed. He was able to understand more clearly why he had pretended to see Jesus and why it bothered him.
In the story "On Going Home," the author Joan Didion was similar to Hughes. She was trying to please others while feeling as if part of her was being destroyed. Perhaps "destroyed" is too strong a word; a better way of explaining it would be torn in two different directions. On one side, she has her family and their way of life, which from the way she talks about it is simple, laid back, and easygoing—something she does miss. On the other hand is her life with her husband, who dislikes the life she used to have in what she describes as a dusty house: "We live in dusty houses—D-U-S-T," her husband once wrote with his finger on surfaces all over the house.
She is not ashamed of her upbringing, but she does feel like an outsider since she lives differently than her family. Hughes says that "I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long, I began to wonder what God thought about Westley, who certainly hadn't seen Jesus either." In a way, Hughes and Didion are similar in that they are trying to please those around them and not thinking about how it makes them feel until later. They differ in that Didion is already an adult when she goes home, while Hughes is still a teenager. They both have put others before themselves and have dwelled on how it makes them feel afterward.
The story "About Men" seems to be one that I, as a reader, did not immediately follow. I was able to see it was talking about how cowboys live and work, but I did not see where it held me. I tried to read it several times to find the purpose of this particular piece. All I can come up with is that it is talking about how men feel inside about a particular way of life. These men work long and tedious hours. They do not complain as others would. For example, in one part of the story, the author says: "When Jane Fonda asked Robert Redford (in the film Electric Horseman) if he was sick as he struggled to his feet one morning, he replied 'No, just bent.'" All of the cowboys laughed in agreement. This shows the toughness of a cowboy.
The author Gretel Ehrlich seems to feel it is important that the cowboy be seen as a person who works hard while being as honest as a man can be. It is as if Gretel wants the reader to understand that even though cowboys are a rough lot, they are still caring people. Being classified as a cowboy is important to many and should not be treated as second-class. They live a life that many would not be able to handle, and they make it look easy.
"Nonfiction balances factual truth with emotional engagement and imaginative storytelling"
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