Lorrie Moore

In the story “How to Become a Writer”, Lorrie Moore takes the reader through what seems to be her own journey on how she became a writer. The story is told in Second Person. The way she writes, in second person, she seems to take the reader personally through her journey on “How to Become a Writer”, but you, the reader are the character. Moore writes about how “you” will apply to college, “you” will show up to the wrong class, and “your” mother will not understand this writing gig. Her style seems to draw the reader in hanging on for the next thing that will happen in “your” life. She effectively makes the audience feel like they are at college, in the wrong class or that they are simply standing in their kitchen showing their mom the haiku they wrote at the ripe age of fifteen and she stares at them “Blank as a donut” (Moore p.652) and she says “How about emptying the dishwasher”(Moore p.652). The common theme of this story is that “you” are always struggling with a plot, and no one quite understands “your” writings. This struggle is a relevant struggle for Moore, as well as many young college students. Through out the short story she explains this common trend of “no plot” and even still you read on and can not help thinking is there a point to this story? The no plot theme seems to take a deeper role. As most will struggle with the choices of life and a fair amount of people will even feel as if they have remained stagnant and really not done too much. Moore really drives this point home. She makes the reader really relate. College students can especially relate. With all the dysfunction a college student endures with choosing what to do and then like Moore having second thoughts and changing their major. This story was witty and sarcastic. Leaving you with a perm-a-grin, because you can totally relate. The style of writing was something unusual for me to be reading but I greatly enjoyed it. Although weird it was intriguing.

In the story “How