2-18-12
Baggaley
Engl 1301
Critical Reading (The Knock)
Preview: The author of “The Knock” is Brian Doyle who went to school at the University of Notre Dame and now living in Portland, Oregon. In my opinion I think this story was directed to everyone in general, to inform others what some soldier do for a living. After reading this passage I thought it was pretty interesting. I felt like I learn something new, we were in Doyle’s friend view and got to see/feel what he saw and how he felt doing this for a living.
Annotations: In this passage there were plenty of words that I didn’t know such as: convey which means to carry to a place, domicile which means somewhat like a home, condolences which means a expression of sympathy, and abreast which means to do something side by side. And I also did learn that “Madonna” is a name for a goddess. This passage is written by Brian Doyle, who is writing in his friend’s point of view informing others about his friend’s job.
Summary: This story here by Doyle who is writing about his friend’s life and his two jobs as a soldier and a policeman. Informing us step by step what his friend do for a living. Doyle’s friend as a soldier goes door to door informing other soldier families about the death of their kid. He also tries to help out the family by conveying information about counseling and funeral information.
Response: There isn’t really much to disagree with in Doyle’s passage. Doyle’s friend’s job is job where you should be happy and sad at the same time, I like that. Doing that as a living, you might be sad because someone passed away, but at the same time you should be happy because soldier family gets to know what happen to their son/daughter/husband/wife. Its better then lying to the family saying that their son/daughter/husband/wife is ok.
Reread: After rereading the passage all I can say is that it makes more sense now that after I defined all the words I didn’t understand at first.