“Trust Me, In These Parts, Hot Dogs Actually Repel Bears” by Ian Fraser: This is a humorous piece where Fraser parlays his experience as an inexperienced traveler. The title insinuates that there would be a situation of someone trying to ward off a bear with a Hot Dog but there is no such scene. He […]
Archive | Essays
Week 10: enecS ehT nO kcaB
The Comics by Arthur Asa Berger: In Berger’s review he explains how and why comic strips have impacted our lives. He uses Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes as one example of how a caption can be used as more than just a funny strip. Comics can hold some undesirable qualities, which Berger touches on, like […]
Week Nine: Right/Write About Now
Exposing Ourselves in South Park by Tessa Sproule:I have always been taught to avoid the use of clichés like they were the plague but Sproule spends clichés like a millionaire. Her subject is relevant and her observations hit the nail right on the head but her use of clichés throws off the wealth of knowledge […]
Week Eight: Love Me or Leave Me Alone
Water Incorporated by Maude Barlow: An informative yet depressing essay about the threat to the world’s water supply. We recently covered this topic in our geography class and it was also the subject of one of the Canadian Voices lectures. Looking at this piece as a persuasive essay, Barlow lays out the facts and creates […]
Week Seven/Eight: A Clock With No Hands
Filling the Open Mind in the Information Age by Wiley Miller, It is nice to have a break from the literature with a comic and not one that is as watered-down as the For Better or Worse caption, previously in the readings, by Lynn Johnston. This piece is relevant to my next essay in which […]
Week Six/Seven: Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievance
Our Daughters, Ourselves by Stevie Cameron: This piece may not be about to my gender but it is for my gender. Sexism is a bitch, sorry, bad joke but I couldn’t resist the pun; in all seriousness, the Montreal Politechnique massacre was a gruesome event and Cameron’s use of it as an example grabs at […]
Week Five/Six: See Positivity
My Body Is My Own Business by Naheed Mustafa: Mustafa’s piece is an expression of the tribulations women, in this case Muslim women, go through growing up and living in the western world. Recently I wrote an essay, for philosophy class, on Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan, my perspective was like that of Mustafa and […]
Week Four or Five: Ketchup on Toast
A Walk on The Wild Side by Alice Munro: This piece was great, except for the point Munro made about how she prefers Ontario’s landscape over British Columbia’s. People do enjoy Ontario but the Canadian Shield has turned from escarpments into a borderline toxic waste dump, and Munro touches on this point. It is a […]
Week Ten: New Zoo Review
Practice review:Bama: Air Conditioning System For Rubber Boots,While shopping for a pair of new work boots I discovered the Bama insert and was instantly taken aback. All those years of wearing plastic shopping bags on my feet, trying to keep my feet dry as I landscaped were over, and dry warm feet were on the […]
Week Four: Waiting For Atonement
Growing up Native by Carol Geddes is similar to the last two pieces, it is a past account on growing up and dealing with the situation that life has placed you in. From a First Nations perspective, life has been a series of misgivings, Geddes illustrates how since the Second World War her people, the […]