This paper examines Russell Baker's essay "On Becoming a Writer," an excerpt from his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Growing Up. The analysis traces Baker's transformation from disengaged student who found writing tedious to passionate writer after completing an essay on "The Art of Eating Spaghetti." Through the influence of his teacher Mr. Feagles, who publicly celebrated Baker's work, the author discovers his life's purpose. The paper discusses how Baker's narrative serves as an inspirational message to young adults and students to explore their true desires, break self-imposed barriers, and recognize that stepping outside one's comfort zone can reveal unexpected passions and opportunities.
"On Becoming a Writer" is an essay by Russell Baker, an author born in Virginia in 1925. This article is an excerpt from his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Growing Up. Russell Baker shares an inspirational story that reminds young adults and students not to be afraid of exploring the desires of their hearts. The essay captures a crucial moment when Russell Baker decides to explore his own desires and realizes that he wants to become a writer.
When the story begins, Russell Baker explains how the art of writing interests him, but he found many things undesirable about English. He describes how boring grammar was and how writing papers felt like a chore and robotic. He even said that reading the classics were "deadening as chloroform" (Baker, 1982). Russell Baker explained that he did not like writing essays because they seemed tedious to complete and difficult for others to read.
Baker touches on an important point in this section. School, for many students, becomes dull and repetitious due to boring subject matter. When teachers put thought and effort into subject matter and allow students to be creative, it can make subjects more appealing and help maintain student interest.
In the next part of the story, Baker tells us about his junior year of high school, with Mr. Feagles. Baker describes Mr. Feagles as a pristine, out-of-touch teacher who was "prim to a fault" (Baker, 1982). For the first part of the year, Mr. Feagles's class fails to spark any interest in Baker. He remained uninterested—that is, until Mr. Feagles assigns the class an informal essay to complete.
Baker, like any typical high school student, puts the assignment off and continues to procrastinate until the night before the assignment's due date. After fumbling through a long, dull list of topics, his eyes fall upon "The Art of Eating Spaghetti" (Baker, 1982). For some reason, this title takes him back to a happy place, and he envisions his family sitting around the table eating their first spaghetti dinner. Baker is so overwhelmed by this feeling that he secretly wants to write the essay on this topic and keep it for himself.
Baker considers it and decides that he will not only complete the assignment but write two papers. He went from not wanting to write at all for several unflattering reasons about grammar to being unable to get enough of writing. However, after writing one paper all night, he realizes he does not have enough time to write another paper, so he submits the one he completed. After a couple of days pass, Mr. Feagles returns all the writing assignments except Baker's essay. At this point, Baker braces himself for the worst news concerning his completed essay and imagines himself sitting in detention for turning in such a poor paper.
When Mr. Feagles returned to his desk, he proceeded to pay tribute to Baker's paper by reading it aloud to the whole class. Baker was completely caught off guard and surely a little embarrassed by what Mr. Feagles was doing. He could not believe that his essay, out of all the essays, was being read aloud to the class.
Baker was completely enjoying the fact that Mr. Feagles and his classmates were entertaining themselves with the essay that he had worked so hard to write all night. At that moment, Baker realized that becoming a writer was his purpose in life. All it took was seeing how entertained his classmates were and hearing their laughter. This moment of public recognition served as powerful motivation, transforming his understanding of his own potential.
Russell Baker's intended audience would be college freshmen, new military soldiers, or anyone brand new to something and afraid to venture beyond what they already know about themselves. There comes a moment in everyone's life, no matter how long they have postponed something, to take the bull by the horns and explore their limitations. By doing so, one may break down unnecessary barriers that they created. In the process, there are countless opportunities that one could discover—from learning to tie your shoes to building a rocket to the moon.
Self-discovery through exploration is a central theme of Baker's narrative, suggesting that comfort zones are not safe harbors but prisons of untapped potential.
"Value of stepping outside comfort zones"
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