Analysis of an Expository Essay with Research -- Sample Paper

Murphy 1

Laura Murphy
Scott Stankey
English 1121
7 Oct. 2003

Analysis of an Essay

When reading a personal essay, it is easy to overlook the in-depth meaning. This is where analyzing becomes a key element to fully understand what an author is trying to share. In the essay, "The Ghosts of Ellis Island," Mary Gordon writes about her visit to the immigration center on Ellis Iland. This was where her grandparents' first destination was in America and was the place that established them to be American. The analytical meaning in Gordon's essay can be researched by looking into her past, her other writings, and what reviewers have to say about her writing style. In an analysis of Gordon's essay, it is evident that she starts and ends with a personal experience story, provides historical information, uses descriptive wording, and "imagines" her grandparents' reaction.

Gordon's essay starts with a personal experience story. By doing this, Gordon leads the reader into her ethnic background. This is exemplified in the beginning of Gordon's essay where she is at a hotel eating breakfast when a Russian man insisted on talking to her. He was interested in her ethnic background and was fascinated to hear that she had so many ethnicities. She left him with a reply about how Ellis Island was what gave America its diversity ("The Ghosts" 397). This leads the reader into Ellis Island, which is where Gordon's ethnicity began. In an interview with Katie Bolick, an Atlantic Online editor, Gordon states, "My grandmother was Irish, and the whole subject of immigration was intensely appealing to me." She also talks about how tough the Irish were, but how they suffered emotionally (Gordon, "Catholic"). Gordon leads the reader into her essay about her Irish ethnicity because of this. Since she has Irish blood herself, she is exceptionally intrigued about their immigration process and writes about it to share with others.

In another essay of Gordon's titled "The Parable of the Cave; or, In Praise of Watercolors," she uses the same technique of beginning with a personal experience to lead her readers into her main topic. In the beginning of the essay, she shares a personal experience story in which a famous writer is telling Gordon a story of how he negatively perceives women writers ("The Parable" 148). This leads Gordon into the bulk of her essay about being a woman writer. Gordon uses this technique to show her readers what she is introducing as her main topic rather than telling only the straightforward facts. In both of Gordon's essays, she uses the beginning to draw readers into what is to come with a more personal touch. Gordon's attention getters draw readers into her essay right from the beginning.

Not only does Gordon use a personal experience story at the beginning of her essay, but she also uses historical information. Historical information is used to make the essay more believable, credible, and helps the reader understand Ellis Island. This makes the essay less emotionally biased and more authentic. Gordon writes, "it [Ellis Island] had not functioned for more than thirty years – almost as long as the time it had operated at full capacity as a major immigration center" ("The Ghosts" 398). This and other historical information in her writing help the reader understand Ellis Island and what the interest is in writing about it. If an individual were to read the essay excluding all of the historical information, he or she would leave it feeling confused as to what Ellis Island was all about and why Gordon felt so strongly about visiting this place. The reader would also be missing out on critical information, such as the time period Ellis Island was in operation, the location, and the credentials the immigrants had to have in order to become an American citizen. If the reader was just given Gordon's emotional viewpoint of Ellis Island, such as her impressionable feelings when she first stepped foot on the island, the essay would not have the same effect because it would missing credentials and believability.

On top of Gordon using a personal experience story at the beginning of her essay and historical information, she also uses strings of descriptive wording. Gordon uses this descriptive wording to share her feelings and, by doing so, to set a tone. In her essay, Gordon analyzes that "it [Ellis Island] stood for: insecurity, obedience, anxiety, dehumanization, the terrified and careful deference of the displaced" ("The Ghosts" 398). She sets the tone that Ellis Island was not a place with bountiful happiness; rather, it represented hardship. It is relevant that Gordon genuinely cares about those immigrants who had suffered at Ellis Island and that she values her connection with them in her heritage. Gordon uses this writing technique in other writings too. The article titled "Seeing Through Places: Reflection and Identity" exemplifies how she strings together descriptive writing, which is from her book, Seeing Through Places. In the article the author, Mike Vago, writes Gordon's quote reporting, "Her house was her body, and like her body, was honorable, daunting, reassuring, defended, castigating, harsh, embellished, dark" (par. 1). The tone that Gordon conveys to us in this quote is a confused and serious one. The tone and knowledge of Gordon's feelings on the subject, given through the stringing together of adjectives, give the reader a base for what is to come in the rest of her writing.

Another literary tool Gordon uses is the "imagining" of her grandparents' reaction to their experiences at Ellis Island. She does this because she wants to feel what her grandparents felt when they were there. She is especially interested in how her grandparents felt since they were the kind of people that like to fit in and not detract from normalcy. Gordon illustrates that "She [Grandma] would have mingled with people carrying baskets on their heads and eating food unlike any she had ever seen" ("The Ghosts" 400). I once saw a movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in which a scenario similar to this one took place. A woman with a strict Greek background fell in love with an average American man. The movie went on to portray how the parents of the two very different cultures handled this. The American man's parents were used to conformity and were taken aback by the exuberant nature of the Greek family. Just as Gordon's grandparents had to conform to various new cultures from all over the world, the American man's parents had to conform to the culture of their son's new in-laws. The two examples are very different in experience, but they show the same base meaning of change and conformity.

Gordon also "imagines" her grandparents' reaction because she wants to put the reader in her "grandparents' shoes." Unlike when she uses the literary tool of historical information for logical appeal, she uses this literary tool for an emotional appeal. Without the emotional appeal of Gordon's essay, the reader would have a hard time being "pulled" into the essay and truly feeling what Ellis Island stood for. The reader wouldn't be able to feel the waiting and anticipation the immigrants had to go through, or the ambiguity of the medical exam. Gordon uses her time at Ellis Island to learn, imagine, and realize what her grandparents felt in reaction to their new life and relays that same emotion to her readers.

In an analysis of Gordon's writing, it is characteristic that she uses literary devices such as using a personal experience story at the beginning of her essay, including historical information, using descriptive wording, and "imagining" her grandparents' reaction at Ellis Island. Gordon uses these devices to more fully elucidate her topic. An analysis of Gordon's essays and books help distinguish her writing techniques from other writers and gives a more in-depth look into the meaning behind her essay. All of these literary devices give a certain charisma to Gordon's writing; therefore, when all of these writing techniques are combined, it is most likely the writing of Mary Gordon.

1327 words / 8 paragraphs / 4.5 pages

Works Cited and Consulted

Bailey, Katherine. “Mary Gordon’s Essays Make Enjoyable Reading.” Star Tribune 26 May 1991. 30 Sept. 2003 <http://www.proquest.com>.

Caliahan, Amy. “Mary Gordon: The Art of Teaching and Writing.” Columbia University Record 23.18 (1998). 5 Oct. 2003 <http://www.Columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol23/vol23_iss18/22.html>.

Gordon, Mary. “Catholic. Woman. Writer.” Interview. The Atlantic Online 6 May 1999. Ed. Katie Bolick. The Atlantic Monthly Company. 5 Oct. 2003 <http://www.theatlantic.com> Path: search for Mary Gordon; interview 99.05.

---. Conversations with Mary Gordon. Ed. Alma Bennett. Mississippi, Jackson, (2002).

---. “The Ghosts of Ellis Island.” The Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Readings. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2003.

---. “The Parable of the Cave; or, In Praise of Watercolors.” Good Boys and Dead Girls. New York: Penguin, 1991. 148-152.

Mudge, Alden. “A Sense of Place: Looking into the Life of Mary Gordon.” Interview. Book Page 2002. 30 Sept. 2003 <http://www.bookpage.com/0001/bp/mary_gordon.html>.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Dir. Joel Zwick. Prod. Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman. Golden Circle. 2002.

Vago, Mike. Rev. of Seeing Through Places: Reflections on Geography and Identity, by Mary Gordon. The Stranger: Book Review Revue. 9.25 (2000): 3 pars. 5 Oct. 2003 <http://www.teh stranger.com/2000-03-09/book_revue.html>.