Columnist Unit: Krista Ramsey

I chose to read the article Raising Kids to Embrace the World, Then They do By Krista Ramsey.       A summary of this article is you are always teaching your kids to go out and embrace the world, and when they do, you will be proud, and also be upset, because you're loosing your child. 

“It's the most humbling lesson of parenting: We may be in charge of the prologue, but only they get to write the story of their lives.” I think that this line is best written.  This lines impact on the reader is it makes the reader think that they can start out someone’s book, but only the actual person can finish the book. This also makes the reader think that they are also in charge of their own story.  While this article was supposed to be about how a parent feels once their child leaves home, but it also encourages others to get up and  finish their story however they want to do it. 

               Ramsey's writing style is very realistic.  Examples of this are:

              1. "This is the site of final hugs and whispered "love you's" as we watch our just-                           grown children depart for New York or Chicago, Austin or Madison, Atlanta or L.A."

              Here Ramsey is describing what it is like to have a child leaving you at an airport,                         and she is describing it almost as if she had experienced it herself, because it                             seems very realistic. 

              2. "They think of it as heading home. We think of it as leaving home."

              Ramsey describes what is going through a young adult and parents mind as the                          child leaves the parent at the airport. 

              3. "Then we return to our car, fold ourselves across the steering wheel and sob."

              Ramsey states here what every parent has been through, or will go through if their                         child leaves to go out of state for a long time.  The parent has millions of things                             going through their mind, and they are worried for their child, and they cannot do                            anything except cry for a moment.  

Three questions that I would ask the writer if given the opportunity are:

1.    Have you ever experienced the reality of watching a child go off in an airport?

2.    You were once a young adult as well, did your mother and father go through this experience with you?

3.    If yes for number two, what was this situation like for you?

The Best Thing about my Book

So far, the best thing about the book that I am reading, City of Ashes, is the drama and suspense the writer uses to keep the reader wanting to turn the page.  Cassandra Clare, the author of City of Ashes and many other books (see About the Author post), leaves you with a cliffhanger at almost every end of the chapter, as well as utilizes drama in the middle of the chapter so the reader won’t get bored in the middle of reading.  All of them are good, and they make me want to keep reading on and find out what happens next.  A good example of how the author uses drama and suspense to enhance her writing is on page 26, “There was a hitch in the other girl’s voice, as if she’d been crying.  “Is Jace there?”  Clary actually held out the phone so she could stare at it before bringing the receiver back to her ear.  “Jace?  No.  Why would he be here?”  Isabelle’s answering breath echoed down the phone line like a gasp.  “The thing is… he’s gone.” (Clare, 26).  In this example, Clare leaves the reader wanting to know where Jace is, and why he went missing, and because she’s given no clues, the reader has to read on to find out what has happened to Jace.

WARNING: THIS EXAMPLE CONTAINS A SMALL SPOILER TO THOSE WHO ARE READING OR WISHING TO READ THE FIRST BOOK OF THIS SERIES, CITY OF BONES.  DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE READING OR ARE GOING TO READ CITY OF BONES!

Another example of why the best thing about City of Ashes is how the author uses drama and suspense is on page 96 and 97, “Jace looked past him, but he could see nothing but blackness beyond the faint illumination of the witchlight.  He thought of the roiling dark form he had seen before, crushing gout all light before it.  “What’s coming? What is it?” He demanded, scrabbling forward to his knees.  “I must go,” said Valentine.  “But were not done, you and I.”  Jace put his hand to the bars.  “Unchain me.  Whatever it is I want to be able to fight it.”  “Unchaining you would hardly be a kindness now.”  Valentine closed his hand around the witchlight stone completely.  It winked out, plunging the room into darkness.  Jace flung himself against the bars of the cell, his broken hand screaming its protest and pain.  “No!” he shouted.  “Father, please.”  “When you want to find me,” Valentine said, “you will find me.”  And then there was only the sound of his footsteps rapidly receding and Jace’s own ragged breathing as he slumped against the bars.” (96-97, Clare). In this example, the author uses the suspense and drama of the feeling of darkness that the reader gets while reading this passage.  The reader wonders what did Jace see in the dark, and what is his father protecting him from in the darkness, and what is the unfinished business that Jace and his father have to take care of? 

City of Ashes: Setting

For my next blog post, I will be talking about the setting of City of Ashes.  The author, Cassandra Clare, describes each new scene so the reader can imagine what is happening easily in their head.  An example of this is “The first time Clary had ever seen the Institute, it had looked like a dilapidated church, its roof broken in, stained yellow police tape holding the door closed.  Now she didn't have to concentrate to dispel the illusion.  Even from across the street she could see it exactly as it was, a towering Gothic cathedral whose spires seemed to pierce the dark blue sky like knives.” (Clare, 52).  Here Clare is describing one of the main settings, the Institute, and what it would look like to normal humans, or mundanes, as the characters in the book call them.  She relates what the Institute looks like to things that almost everyone has seen before, so that they can picture it in their minds.