Sentence 2

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

His sentence: I can still see Hassan up on that tree, sunlight flickering through the leaves on his almost perfectly round face, a face like a Chinese doll chiseled from hardwood: his flat, broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked, depending on the light, gold, green, even sapphire.

My thoughts: The author makes a complete simple thought at the beginning of the sentence but then follows by detailing his statement by using many phrases, clauses, and even a colon to further explain the significance in Hassan's looks. This technique is classified as either a loose or cumulative sentence, where the main part of the sentence is in the beginning and is followed by fluff or details to build on the actual point. The reason he used such structure was maybe to reveal or mimic his meandering thought process as he was almost daydreaming in rememberance of Hassan's appearance.

My sentence: Deidra had never experienced a sadness so great, her eyes filled with tears and her heart seemed to break like shattered glass falling to to the floor, her mind held on to what seemed like the smallest possible amount of hope: she longed for release of misery but the phrase 'time heals everything' had not yet come through in her situation.

Sentence 1

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D.

*His sentence: Martians have a win/lose philosophy- I want to win, and I don't care if you lose.

*My thoughts: I recognized that the author used a dash to further explain the information previously presented which strikes a reader and makes them want to know more and get deeper into the text. The following part of the sentence after the dash almost uses redundant meaning in sort of a balancing but opposing way. This reinforces the power backed behind the Martians philosophy to include both points of view.

*My sentence: Davis made no effort to help anyone else in the class- it was his grade, and his alone.

Draw!

On page 151, Daniel Pink encourages readers to exercise their creativity through none other than art. Okay, so I may not be a very artistic person; however, I took the advice and played around with a five-line self-portrait that Pink demonstrated. It was quite difficult to turn five lines into something that resembled the face I see in the mirror, but in reality, what I learned was to look beyond the exterior to find what is underneath. Today's society relies heavily on outward appearances. There seems to be one mold that defines "pretty". Growing up, I can remember hearing over and over, "Don't judge a book by its cover." In elementary school that phrase did not mean much to me, but now I see that it is hard to find someone living by that motto. Through this simple activity, drawing myself, I've thought deeply on what defines a person. When I try to explain it, I can't help but think of a sandwich. We all may resemble one another on the outside, but its what is on the inside that truly matters.