Looking for Zora by Alice Walker - Free Paper with the Essay Analysis

Alice Walker, in her essay looking for Zora, is based on her venture out to Florida to enquire more about Zora. She went out as Zora's niece to make it easy for her to get information about her. She was interested in knowing how the life of this author was like, the cause of her death and more critical where her grave is correctly located. She used the narrative writing style, which includes direct interviews with various individuals which make it more appealing. Her main objective while writing this essay is to show that unfamiliar and undisguised place that Zora was bullied is less far vital to the influence and memories she had left behind. On the other hand, the essay The White Album by Joan Didion is a collection of stories. It was published in 1979. The first line of the narration is Didion's most quoted part "we tell ourselves stories to live. I have seen people using this quote in many different contexts, usually positive but more condemning lines comes later in the paragraph. We look for the sermon in the suicide for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. As such, in this case, she was intended to show how we sometimes try to make up some stories during our desperate situations to give meaning to our lives. Although that might be putting too fine of a point on it, it is at least a good reason to stop and think about the way that you tell yourselves stories about how things happened and ignore a lot of things that don't fit in the narrative that you have applied to your life especially those things that are not your own making. Didion hence might have intended to mean that we tell ourselves stories to comfort ourselves trough ignoring those things that are out of our control such as those we inherited and those created as something is happening.

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While writing the essay about Looking for Zora, the main appeal that Alice used to evoke the empathy in the audience is pathos. She starts by showing how Zora was a great writer who deserved a good lifestyle and also a respectable send-off. She goes ahead to show how things went contrary as anyone would have expected by showing how traumatized she became while being given the stories about Zora by those who knew her. She was shocked when she realized that she died of malnutrition (Pg. 401). This sound ridiculous, and this made her inquire further about Zora death from her doctor. On the other hand, Didion used her own life experiences to make an essay of how stories about how various aspects affect our lives. I feel like Joan tries to say that the stories we tell ourselves are just one of many possible options. He says that we live by these stories and in this essay called The White Album, she talks about a time when she began to question the premise of every story she had ever told herself. Instead of stories, she saw flash images with no meaning behind them an experience she described not as a movie but cutting-room experience (Pg. 440). The essay has been a series of vignettes of all these things that were happening at the time that she even as a writer and maybe as a writer was not able to see clearly or structure to a narrative. This theme repeats throughout the collection. The most notable similarities between The White Album Essay and Looking for Zora is that the depict realistic challenges that each individual can incorporate in his/her life.

The most exciting thing in the white album is how personal the stories are. It has been an age of own story writing, but it appears to be something unique about Didion. It's partly the way she writes about everything personally. For example, personal take on visiting, and she is also so sharply critical of everyone and everything. She goes ahead and even criticizes herself, which makes her seem so honest about her uncertainty (Pg. 431). She seems unaffected and yet so profoundly into details. It makes a disconnection between how she describes feelings and then confident in the style in which she writes. In the "Looking for Zora" essay, the most exciting thing is the application of pathos. The writer manages to evoke a sense of empathy to show how unfair the Black American writers are treated in the United States. They are never supported, and most of them die miserable deaths despite their contribution to society. For example, when enquiring about Zora death from Dr. Benton, who was Zora's doctor, he stated that She has a stroke and died in a welfare home" (Pg. 407). This aspect makes someone feel that the government needs to do something to support Black American authors considering the contribution they make in society.

Both Looking for Zora and The White Album, the impact of alienation can impact an individual's lives. Didion seems to describe how telling ourselves stories shape our lives, values, and culture. She argues that, as narratives take shape, you sound certain even to your uncertainty. She said, "I want you to know as you read me precisely who I am and what is on my mind, I want you to understand exactly what you are getting" (Pg. 476). She goes on to say how she feels alienated from what could be meaningful to other people a sleepwalker (Pg. 437). In a figurative sense, she goes on to say that she also has trouble maintaining the basic notion that keeping promises matters in a world where everything she was taught seemed beside the point. This may show that she was undergoing a specific form of depression. This is further ascertained when she later talks about her depression diagnosis, but yet, she also describes certain things that were happening in the '60s that would make this to appear as cultural. Using her personal life, she brings out the theme of class and how even the wealthy educated people can use the meaning of their lives. She fits together with what she seems to be described as the deterioration of society. The other thing that Didion seems to emphasize is how an individual may feel as he/she does not fit in the cultural context. On the other hand, Alice's essay Looking for Zora, the author also shows the aspect of alienation that Zora experienced during her life. Similar to Didion who explain how the element of isolation caused depression, Zora also suffered and died of a stroke a disease which could have also be caused by the aspect of alienation and desperation.

Both the white album and looking for Zora very much realistic essays based on their writing styles. In the case of the white album, the writer uses her personal life while in Looking for Zora, the author uses practical visit and activities in her effort to find Zora. The climax of her journey included visiting where Zora was leaving before her illness and death and also purchasing a monument and had it engraved. By doing this practice, she wanted to show what ought to have been done. She clearly shows that just as other veterans and scholars are given a decent send-off, Black Americans authors are not exceptional, and they deserve the same. The government should respect all the heroes and heroine without the aspect of racism. I like this essay because it is not only well organized but uses a more convincing style and the one that will make a leader see the reality of what she is talking about. On the other hand, There are certain exciting aspects that Didion has spoken about. She talks a lot about the Manson Family and the effect that the tape murders had on especially Los Angela's in 1969. She was closely involved with Linda Kasabian during the trial, and also they seem to have remained friendly afterward. This could have been used to show how supporting people during hard times is necessary for friendship. She also writes about the Beatles White Album of and even the migraines. The writing of migraines is not only meant to show the challenges they face but also how they can develop and maintain a relationship with other people. Her advice to the immigrants is excellent as it is from personal experience.