Narrative Essay

In my narrative, I talked about my experience when I traveled to Nigeria for the first time. I talked about how I felt when I got there. How I felt that I didn’t belong and knew nothing about my culture. I was ashamed to even proclaim myself as Nigerian, knowing that I knew nothing about my culture or my roots. I feel like writing this essay was a good way for me to express my feelings. Writing has always been an escape route for me to document and vent out my feelings and thoughts on paper whenever I feel stressed, angry or even happy. Writing this narrative gave me a way to do that and share my story. I have never actually said this aloud to any person before I wrote about it. Although it was a bit hard to put into words what I felt at that time, I finally did it. I didn’t know how people would react and how I would feel after putting it into words. Even though I have come to terms with the experience, I never said it aloud to another person. I felt like I was very vulnerable in writing this essay, which is something I don’t like to do. An example of this was when I said, “ At this point in my life, I didn’t know anything about my ethnic background. Whenever I would leave the compound with my siblings or parents, I felt that I was enclosed in a bubble of doubt and shame” I always want to appear as a strong and independent person. I put in a few rhetorical terms when I used imagery in describing my grandmother. I used a lot of descriptive language which would help whoever is reading it to imagine her in their head. Some of the language I used was “ Her luminescent skin was a beautiful mix of mahogany and a golden brown. She had the same marks across her face like my father” I also liked doing the peer narrative, because it was nice to see and read another person’s story.

In my case, my partner was Andrew and he had a drawing and a description. His drawing depicted his life from when he was born, to his current status as a college student. He used symbols and animals to represent different areas of his life. He had a ram for his zodiac , a gemstone for his school, and a caduceus with snakes to represent his goal on becoming a doctor. I liked how he used these things to represent what he was saying. It was very interesting for me to look at, interpret and write my own thoughts about what he did. Even though my interpretation may not have been right, it was a good thing for me to analyze someone’s story. While doing the peer review, I was able to pick up some ideas from what Andrew did and incorporate it in my own narrative. Doing the peer narrative helped me to develop and engage in collaborative and social aspects of the writing process. When I was freewriting my thoughts on writing the narrative, I wrote that I was happy that I wrote about my experience and voiced it out, so maybe others could relate to what I was saying. Overall writing this narrative was a good and rewarding experience.

Critical Lens

How did you get started?

I got started with picking my lens. I picked Constructing Normalcy because it felt more in tune with what I wanted to talk about. Constructing Normalcy talked about how the ideal is desired and sought after, while non-normative bodies are looked down on. I knew that I wanted my target text to be surrounded around body image and how it is seen in society.

How did you choose your target?

I chose my target based on my lens. I knew that I wanted my target to be about body image and how it is seen in society. How the beauty norms for women are different than men, women need to be slender with big boobs and a thin waist. What better way to do this than pick a text about Victoria’s Secret. In their show, they only show the ideal body type for women. They never shoe plus size or transgender females. I felt that the target that I picked fit the most with my lens.

Where was the sticking point? In other words, what difficulties did you have composing the essay?

The difficulties I had in writing this essay were the introduction and conclusion. Those have always been the hardest parts to me to write in an essay. The introduction I had to introduce both of the text and also my thesis. At first, my thesis was very. Bad and not that specific. The conclusion I had to sum everything up well but not extend it so much. I also had some trouble with analysis. I had quotes but not that much analysis following.

What was the easiest part of writing the essay?

The easiest parts of the essay were the paragraphs that I had to summarize each text. In these paragraphs I was able to be either general or specific. I could write about each text without having to compare them together.

What was the focus of your revision?

The focus of my revision was to add more analysis to my paragraphs. Also to make my thesis more specific. My first thesis was very general and only stated one text. I revised it to include both of them and make it more specific. For my paragraphs, they were very brief and did not have that much analysis and depth. I revised these paragraphs to add more analysis and depth to them.