Essay Sample on A New Perspective: A Journey Through Life

A New Perspective is a first-person narration that describes a segment of the life of the author, where she compares her life when she was young and as an adult. The narration began with a memory of the past when the author's mother was taking her to kindergarten. She, the author, do not quite remember what the event was, but she remembers looking at her mother as she passed through the neighbors' houses going towards the direction of the kindergarten. Also, A New Perspective shows how the author remembers the somber moments that she had with her mother, especially when her mother got ill and was bedridden. Through the specific experiences that the author shares, it is evident that the mother's illness affected her social life, and throughout most of her life, she felt cheated. Coming into adulthood and becoming a mother, the author was able to view the situation from a different perspective, and it changed how she felt about her childhood. The purpose of the essay is to critically analyze the techniques that the writer of A New Perspective uses to convey her message to the readers.

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To begin with, the writer uses a generous helping of imagery and metaphors to describe her situation. In the first paragraph of the narration, the author uses the analogy of the film, 'Cheated in Life,' to show how her life was; she says that her childhood had become a series of mental snips as noted in the title (Fein 2002, n.p). It is possible to deduce that the author felt cheated in her life through the experiences that she went through as a child. The author describes the walk from her home to the kindergarten vividly, noting fine details such as the order of their neighbors' houses, the direction which the sun rose from, her parents' room, the vastness of her friend's playroom, and her mother's sad eyes waiting for her after school. The analogy continues where the author completes some of her paragraphs with 'cheated' to show that she felt cheated by the life that she was living. Through imagery, the author successfully helps the readers to get a mental glimpse of her life as a child (Fein 2002, n.p).

Another technique that the author uses is the use of repetition. In almost all the paragraphs in the narration, the word 'cheated' has been used several times to describe what the author felt regarding her situation. Apart from the last paragraph, the author felt that she was the victim of deceit because she did not get to experience life as other children did due to her mother's condition. The last paragraph shows the new perspective that the author adopted towards her childhood now that she had a child of her own. She saw that it was not her that got cheated but her mother who desired to be there for her and did not have the ability to of prolonging her stay. The writer also keeps referring to her mother's sad eyes. The reference shows that the author was keen on her mother's situation, and at some point, she says that the sad eyes matched the despair that she felt in her heart. Repetition helps the author to internalize a word or phrase because it contributes heavily to the message that the author wishes to communicate (Fein 2002, n.p). The author also plays around with syntax to communicate some important messages to the author. For instance, when she describes her visit to Connie when her (Connie) mother was making lasagna for her, Connie says, "Lasagna...again!" the parenthesis in the middle of the two words and the exclamation mark at the end clearly shows the disappointment that Connie faces when she realizes that she will consume lasagna. In the last sentences of the two paragraphs that follow the punctuation and sentence structure help to create emphasis on the feeling of being cheated that the writer felt when she saw the sad eyes of her mother following her lack of experience of the 'normal' lifestyles of friends and schoolmates.

Rhetoric questions go a long way in helping the readers to reflect on certain instances in the narrative as the writer has put them. As the writer recalls the walk to school with her mother, she asks herself a couple of questions on the possible reasons that her mother may have been taking her to school. She wonders if it could have been her first time in school or Parent's Day. After the questions, she says that the reason that her mother was taking her to school is not as important as the memory of being taken to kindergarten by her mother that one time. Another rhetorical question gets seen where the writer's mother asks her if the bologna sandwich she had in her hand was the best she could find. The mother was concerned about the food that her daughter was consuming, and the writer evades the question by saying that she was not very hungry. The writer also delivers her message through irony (Fein 2002, n.p). She compares her situations with that of her friends and schoolmates. Her friend Connie was disgusted by the thought of having lasagna for supper, again, while the writer was intrigued by the scent of the meal and feigned going to the bathroom to steal a glimpse of the lasagna that Connie's mother had prepared. During the cold season, other mothers waited for their children to make them warm while the writer was met with sad eyes by her mother when she got home. The contrary happenings in the writer's life and that of her friends contributed to the feeling of being cheated.

The writer of the A New Perspective describes the sad events that she had to experience as a child, especially due to the illness that her mother had. Disdainful feelings characterized her childhood since she felt that he deserved a normal childhood like the other children. Her experiences as a child may have contributed to the path of life that she chose, being a caseworker for abused and neglected children. She probably felt that the children were also harboring similar feelings to what she felt as a child, and she wanted to help them navigate through life with a different mindset. After viewing her situation from a new perspective, she would be able to help the children get better opportunities, view life with hope, and get the love that they missed from parents or guardians.

Work Cited

Fein, Janice. A New Perspective. Imprints Volume II. Ed. Kathy Evans, Lori Farren, Janet Hannaford, Stuart Poyntz, Jim Robson, and Dom Saliani. Toronto: Gage learning. 2002. 45-47.