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Object Essay English IVEssay Assignment Jernigan

The essayist, let us say, unexpectedly stumbles over a pair of old blue boots in a corner of the garage, and this reminds

her of when she last wore themtwenty years ago, on a trip to Paris, where on the bank of the Seine she stopped to

watch an old fellow sketching, with a box of colored pencils at his side. The pencil wiggling over his sheet is a

grayish pink, which reflects the threads of sunset pulling westward in the sky, like the reins of a fairy cart ... and so on.

The mind meanders, slipping from one impression to another, from reality to memory to dreamscape and back again.

Cynthia Ozick, She: Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body (1998)

For this assignment, please follow each of five steps in the writing process:

1. Choose an Object: It can be any object. Your brothers first baseball mitt. A piece of junk that your parentsseem unable to get rid of. The glass bottle that you fished out of the lake. Dont settle for a favorite,

sentimental, or otherwise obvious object. Entrust your unconscious to choose an object that matters

especially if youre not sure why it matters. Begin by listing some possible objects below:

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

After you have settled on one object, proceed to the steps listed below. Complete each step by doing somefreewriting in a notebook or Word document. If you feel that it would be appropriate to bring your object to

class, feel free to add it to the center of the table.

2. Describe the Object (10 min): Try to look at the object from every possible angle or perspective. Start withsize, color, shape, texture, any specific features. Do not content yourself with surface detail. What is inside the

object? What secrets does it hold? What might it look like when approached with a microscope? What mightit look like from far away? Find metaphors and similes. What is the object similar to? What is it differentfrom? Stare not only at the physical object but at its name. What does its name tell you?

3. Explore the Objects Utility & History (10 min): How has the object been used? What traces of personal

history can you discern in the object? What does the object tell you about its owner? What were the mostimportant events in the life of the object and its owner? What bond did they share? What would exist in the

absence of the object?

4. Riffon the Abstract (10 min): Until now, you have focused on the concrete attributes of the object. Now

treat the object as a means by which to explore abstract themes or issues. At this stage, it is important to let

your unconscious take the lead. Begin by thinking about how your ordinary object (say, an apple) might betransformed into an abstract idea (temptation). But dont limit yourself to obvious or clichd associations.Write down any and all associations that come to mind. What can the drivers-side airbag teach us about love?

What does the doorknob know about abandonment? The swiss army knife was the end result of what emotion,

encounter, or mistake?

5. Write! (30 min): Now gather up everything you have written about the object. Do you notice any

connections? Do any of your descriptions of the object resonate with an abstract theme? Can you see a thread

that might tie an essay together? The central focus of your essay need not be the object itself. Feel free to focusyour essay on a person, relationship, or abstract theme. Think of the object as a tool or through-line that enables

you to unlock new insights about your central topic. In the end, your only requirement is to write an interesting

essay!

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Put the argument into a concrete shape, into an imagesome hard phrase, round and solid as a ball, which they can

see and handle and carry home with themand the cause is half won. [. . .] Condense some daily experience into a

glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified. They feel as if they already possessed some new right and power

over a fact which they can detach, and so completely master in thought. It is a wonderful aid to the memory, which

carries away the image and never loses it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Eloquence (1858)