Posted by Melanie on June 06, 1999 at 21:28:42:
In Reply to: writing prompt #18 posted by chris miller on June 04, 1999 at 00:17:31:
: I like what David Huddle does with this story. He starts out narrating what I think is a biography but it turns out to be a story from another person.
: The narrator takes a distinct way of telling the story. He jumps around between first person and third person. When we first start to read the story he is telling it, but before you know it she has stepped in to tell her version. I think Huddle is trying to make us think a little harder about what it is that we are reading. He takes an interesting approach and puts her story in his and mixes it all up. I got a confused with who was telling what and when after a while.
: What we learn as readers is that Huddle explains his character Michelle as a quiet student in one of his classes. Not only is she catholic but she has some distinct values of her own. I learned that she was most invisible to those people that she lived with in the dorms back at her school, I guess you could call her a loner or something. In addition to this Huddle gave us some great detail about the story. Her crawling along the muddy trail trying to find the teacher, freezing cold in the car, feeling her way through the running river before the bridge. All of these things made the story come alive, no pictures were spared in my imagination.
: I think that if the story were to be told from the main character we would have had a different taste of what happens to each individual. One member of my class group mentioned that it was a good example of how to write a flash back. I didn’t look at this way but it is true. He starts out one way and finishes that other.
: All in all I liked this story and found it to be more of a learning experience than a assignment.