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Eng 255 Assignment 6
Introductory Composition (Engl 255)
Athabasca University
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English 255 “Not Like the Movies” “Not Like the Movies” by Melisa Maurice P. Janse van Rensburg is a personal narrative essay, she does an exceptional job by contrasting between her dreams and reality: the romantic description of the nurse’s thick, black hair blowing in the wind “Her black hair blew in the wind, surrounding her like a thick, black mane”(370) and the writer’s hair getting tangled in the wind “My hair tangles in the wind.. thing purple.. little boy” (373) in this sentence the author used merism and epithet technique as she is contrasting between blowing hair and tangled hair also when she is comparing the hair with thick black mane essay begins with an anecdote capturing the interest of the readers’. She introduces the readers’ with two opposing ideas using a sway method. She first makes the readers’ familiar to a positive mood and immediately afterward introduces to a negative tone. On this essay, Rensburg describes her dream as a nurse and what being a nurse is like in reality. Rensburg becomes a nurse and hoping to serve mankind. At one point Rensburg is contradicting her own statement; firstly, she told that she wanted to be a nurse from her childhood. Again she states, she does not know which profession to choose. She chose to be nurse because her mother told her to be; it’s quite confusing for the readers’. Why she chose to be a nurse it is not clear whether it is her own decision or her mother’s. It makes the readers’ perplex. She chose these kinds of contradictory statement probably to keep the readers’ engage to know if there any reason why she chose that particular profession. She explains her experiences while she was studying nursing; her description of a student life is so natural and true “We partied all night... lectures all day.... It was pretty.. student life goes” (371). Rensburg is using enumeratio technique. A reader can easily relate himself with Rensburg. The
reader can imagine himself doing hiking, flirting, partying whole night, and sleeping in the lectures. Rensburg is successful to give her readers’ an experience like this. Then she completely changes the track of the essay, till now the readers’ feels happy to relate them with the author but all in a sudden, Rensburg starts describing the challenge she faces in her life. However, after facing the reality of a nurse’s life, her notion about the profession of nurse has been changed. She also gives the references of the black and white film which portrays the fiction not the reality about the life and describes her own personal experiences as an example how real life is different than movies. This makes the readers’ feel pitiful for her because she started her essay with vivid dreaming of a nurse but she has to face the hurdles of life that she never imagined. It has negative effects on the readers’ and they tend to think that real life is completely different than movies additionally reality is hard to deal. She chose the appropriate way of writing to support the message she wishes to give the readers’. Rensburg’s description of the massacre, she witnessed at St. James Church grabs the readers’ attention and extracted various emotions such as panic, disgust, anxiety, anger, loss and grief. Her choice of diction forces the readers’ to think that they are also witnessing the tragedy. She uses the pathos successfully, an inductive method to approach her readers’ attention. This description of massacre compelled many readers to compare the reality of being a nurse and how the movies feature the career. In addition, Rensburg’s movie references are inappropriate because many black and white war films show both brutal war scenes as well as sweet romance scenes. In this point Rensburg’s approach is ineffective, to get the attention from the readers’. After the massacre, Rensburg moved from the Cape Town and headed towards London and Canada. She started working there again to get rid of the haunting memory of massacre. She moved on with her life, she uses pathos in this situation to reach her readers’. Her effort is really
Overall, it is an emotional and effective essay because it displays great stage of development, pathos etc. She shows an interesting choice of words as it is a personal essay. Through her creative, personal, narrative essay she successfully describes the readers’ that nobility can be felt through one’s work experience in life even if it’s “not like the movies”. The mesmerizing events and exciting description of her life, helps to give her final and most important message that serving the fellow mankind has truly been dreams come true. Work Cited
Maurice, Melisa P. Janse van Rensburg, “Not Like the Movies”. Acting on Words: An Integrated Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook. 3 rd ed. David Brundage And Michael Lahey. Toronto. ON: Pearson,2012. 370-372.
Eng 255 Assignment 6
Course: Introductory Composition (Engl 255)
University: Athabasca University
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