Share your literary essay with the rest of the students that chose this short story. Take some time to read 2 or 3 other essays. Comment on them. Your comment should be about something you noticed them doing well from our lessons. For example, "You did a really good job explaining your evidence"
“One Voice” is a short story by Melissa de la Cruz that takes place in the current time at Stanford. What makes this setting unique is the fact that it encompasses multiple real-life issues with accurate reactions. The story focuses on a girl named Jasmine when she discovers someone has performed horrible graffiti on a wall. Because of the character's diverse backgrounds, they cannot understand each other's perspectives. The author uses this to teach readers that it is hard to see things from other perspectives.
ReplyDeleteIn “One Voice”, Melissa de la Cruz uses character dialogue to show the readers that It is difficult to see things from others' perspectives. The first way that Melissa de la Cruz does this is through the dialogue between Royce and Jasmine when they are hanging out together. The quote “Don’t let them get under your skin”. In some circumstances, this could be shown as understanding. Jasmine could see this as being insensitive toward her.
In “One Voice”, Melissa de la Cruz uses character actions to show the readers that it is difficult to see things from another's perspective. The first way De la Cruz shows this is when Royce tries hugging Jasmine. She was clearly upset and he tried hugging her to de-escalate the situation but that wasn't what she needed. This is more shown on page 139 where Jasmine thinks “It’s hard to explain, but I wanted space.” This shows that they are not understanding each other.
In “One Voice'', Melissa de la Cruz uses figurative language to show the readers that it is difficult to see things from others' perspectives. The first time we see this is the Character Yen-yen's name. Melissa de la Cruz repeats the same thing in her name twice which makes readers more inclined to believe this is important. They end up having an important conversation about racism in their school. This could be interpreted as creating a theme of racism; however, it created a theme of It's difficult to see things from other's perspective because the use of figurative language shows that.
Clearly, the theme of “One Voice '' is It is difficult to see things from another's perspective. This is first seen when the author uses Dialogue. The dialogue between characters shows that Royce didn't understand what Jasmine was feeling, the theme was created when the author used character actions. The different actions between characters show readers how body language is easily missed. Finally, the author used figurative language to create the theme. Readers saw this when the author used a character with a repeating name, Yen-yen. As a result, it is evident that the theme of “One Voice'' is that it is difficult to see things from other's perspective.
Good job on your counter-argument
DeleteYou did a great job with explaining and citing your evidence.
Delete“One Voice” is a short story by Melissa de la Cruz that takes place at Stanford University. What makes this setting different is that there are many different kinds of people there. The short story focuses on a college student named Jasmine and her friends. The characters have to deal with racially targeted graffiti on the wall, and struggle to deal with it. Because everyone is so different, they can’t see each other’s points of view. The author uses this to teach us about perspectives; it is important to understand other people’s perspectives in order to see the full picture.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the setting of “One Voice” helps teach this lesson. As stated earlier, the short story takes place in a university with many different kinds of people. This helps show how important it is to understand perspective by bringing in many different people with different perspectives. This also shows that you can never truly understand something without knowing the other people’s perspectives. Another piece of evidence is that in the story, the overall tone and details used put stress on perspective. Like in multiple different scenes like, “It’s so awful,’ Yen-Yen said” or “It wouldn’t be hard to guess that Julia is African American based on what the graffiti said.” The tone of these scenes stresses that people have similar and different thoughts on the graffiti. This highlights the fact that people have important perspectives that can be different. I wonder if the author put these situations in the story to show different perspectives?
The figurative language in this short story also supports the theme. Imagery plays a big part of this, specifically in the following scene where a character hears about the racist graffiti,. “...His eyes burned with having dealt with this kind of hate his whole life.” This figurative language shows the character’s perspective on the subject of racism. Although this could be seen as supporting a theme of bullying, it supports perspectives more strongly because it shows that his perspective is an important thing to see since he has experience with it. Another piece of figurative language that supports the theme is the metaphor at the very end of the story. “We’re one voice when we want to be.” This shows that Jasmine finally learned to see other people’s perspectives by the end of the short story. Obviously, the theme of “One Voice” is supported by the figurative language.
Character changes show that the theme stated earlier is correct as well. In the middle of the story, Jasmine and Royce argue because they don’t understand each other’s perspectives about the graffiti. This is shown in this scene, …”’They’re words, that’s all. No one is going to hurt anyone.’ ‘They’re just words?’ … ‘Where do you think violence starts?’” Even so, in the end, Jasmine and Royce start understanding each other’s perspectives. This shows that the characters changed to understand each other’s perspectives, and realized that they both have important points of view.
Clearly, the theme of “One Voice” is that it is important to understand other people’s perspectives. This is first seen when the author used the setting. This helps show the theme by having very different people in one place. Next, the theme was created when the author used figurative language. The previously stated metaphor and imagery show that this was the author’s intent with this theme. Finally, the author used character changes to create the theme. Readers saw this when Jasmine and Royce learned to understand each other’s perspectives. As a result, it is evident that the theme of “One Voice” is that it is important to understand other people’s perspectives.
You did a great job with your counter-argument.
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