Author Archives: marisaskurka

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is a memoir that documents Paul’s journey battling lung cancer. Paul is a doctor, a neurosurgeon to be exact. The irony of the entire story is that Paul is a doctor who has the ability to figure out that he has cancer before he is even diagnosed byContinue reading “Irony in When Breath Becomes Air”

My Architect is a documentary that recounts the different aspects of a particular man’s life: Louis Kahn. Lou Kahn’s son Nathaniel attempts to reconstruct his father’s life and who his father was based on the memories of others, along with some of his own memories. Memory plays a major role in memoir, even though MyContinue reading “My Architect”

In the memoir Educated, the protagonist, Tara Westover, struggles with forming her identity. Her identity is constructed for her by the people that she loves. She never really found her voice, or used her voice. She says, “My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurredContinue reading “Identity in Educated”

I understand and agree with the reasons that were brought up in our last discussion for not liking this memoir. However, I found part two of this book more interesting than part one because part two gave us something to root for: I was rooting for Tara to get good grades and earn enough moneyContinue reading “Educated, Part Two”

Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime covers a wide array of difficult topics such as racism and black suffering, apartheid, and violence. Noah utilizes the literary device simile. In Born a Crime, similes connect the reader to the difficult topics that Noah unveils which connects the reader to the life that Noah exposes to his audience.Continue reading “Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Audience Connection Through Simile”

Frederick Douglass argues that there are several ways to understand a particular experience. Douglass supports this claim when he explains that the lives of slaves can be learned from the songs that the slaves sang or the “volumes of philosophy on the subject” (chapter II). Furthermore, Frederick Douglass aims to correct the idea that slavesContinue reading “Frederick Douglass on Learning and Understanding”

Lopate says that a writer of a personal essay needs to have some distance from themselves. Augustine exhibits the characteristics of a personal essayist. In Augustine’s memoir Confessions, Augustine is honest in his descriptions of his actions as a young man. He admits that his love for stealing, sex, and other sinful actions is wrong,Continue reading “Augustine as a Character”

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde. This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right. You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click theContinue reading “Introduce Yourself (Example Post)”