Comparing The Perfect Family, The Sanctuary of School, Dog Lab, and Education

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Comparing The Perfect Family, by Alice Hoffman, The Sanctuary of School, by Lynda Barry, Dog Lab, by Claire McCarthy, and Education by Jake Werner

What we learn at home, at school, from our peers, and from entertainment can have great effects throughout our whole entire lives. There is no such thing as a perfect family, human being, or society, yet we are able to live our lives with the enjoyment of peace and harmony. What we see on television may simulate a perfect family, but, of course, not everything we wish to see is true. Not everyone can have the lives that everyone wants. In reading the essays "The Perfect Family" by Alice Hoffman, "The Sanctuary of School" by Lynda Barry, "Dog Lab" by Claire McCarthy, and "Education" by Jake Werner a realization occurred. These authors came down with comparable results. Two authors have similar styles of writing while the others had a contrasting style.

"The Perfect Family" by Alice Hoffman was about how she was faced with the adversity of being raised in a single parent family. She never gave up on believing her mom and herself, which is the reason who she is today. Alice Hoffman had a straight-forward strategy in writing her essay. In her style of writing, she included many details in describing her childhood history. It was from the introductory paragraph where I figured that this story was going to be descriptive in the sense of trying to constrain us by sympathizing with her and other families. In addition, she gave images such as "Roses grew by the front door...We had glass bottles filled with lightning bugs and brand-new swing sets in the backyard, and softball games at dusk."(pg --) Using this type of technique in writing her essay gave a clearer understanding of what she is trying to do. She was setting the table. Also, she gave a brief history of how marriages are supposed to be, how divorces are uncommon during that time, and the type of jobs a wife should be committed to. This technique was useful in her essay because if she did not include that history, maybe the reader would not understand the point of writing this essay, or may be confused on what is going on. A historical background can help greatly in helping the reader understand what is going on and can answer some questions to why this essay is being written.

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