Journal Two: Memoir

An item becomes meaningful when a person puts sentimental value behind it. David Giffels gives and example of this in “Shirt-Worthy”.  In David’s case, when he was a kid, he felt that to wear rock and roll shirt you had the earn it. In order to have credibility, one had to experience the emotions and feel how epic a concert is. This story is relevant because his son wanted the same band shirt David wanted to earn, but his son just wanted the shirt because he liked it. David states the times have changed and kids these days will not struggle because things you use to have to earn now are easy to get. As a father you do not want your kids to struggle through life, but you kind of want them to because the struggles and how they over come the problems makes a person who they are.

The audiences that this story was made for are parents that can relate and young adults that can learn a lesson from this story. There maybe a couple points David is trying get across in this story. One point is things are worth a lot more when you earn them and put sentimental value behind it. Another, point of this story maybe that values have change from generation to generation and it might be hard to pass a parent’s values and morals to the children who are growing up in a different world.

The writer used rhetorical devices pretty well in this story. David described his feeling well enough that I can feel where he is coming from and understand his emotions. He explains the shirts meaning when he was a kid that I can see the reactions from other kids if he wore a Ramones shirt. The writer used the flashback in time to help explain the story well. Also, the transition from the past to the relevant event was great.  The writer showed pathos he each event in his story. In the flashback, he brought up forgotten feelings the he had as a kid. In the present event with his kid, he expressed regret for getting his child the shirt that he never earned. In the story, ethos is also shown when David explains his values behind a rock and roll shirt.

I would like to be able to explain the event my memoir with the same feeling to make the reader feel the same emotions as I did. I would like to incorporate the same hook in the introduction and have the just as smooth transition from different time periods in my memoir.