The Kind of Friends We Used to Be By Frances O'Roark Dowell
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Summary
In the next 72 pages of The Kind of Friends We Used to Be by Frances O’Roark Dowell, Kate and Marylin’s friendship isn’t broke but it’s not mended back together. These past 72 pages has shown how Kate and Marylin each cope with knowing their friendship isn’t how it used to be. Kate doesn’t care about being accept, in fact she wants to the rebellious unique girl that doesn’t conform. So she’s creating a new image for herself, a girl guitar play. Instead of dwelling on her friendship of Marylin choosing cheerleaders over her, she focuses her energy on writing songs. She writes about the perfect guy and what he would be like and how she would feel and all of the experiences she would have with him. In essence Kate uses music to take herself out of the real world and create her own world with her guitar. Through her music she becomes close with her enemy, Flannery, who is filling the hole in Kate’s life of where Marylin used to be. Marylin on the other hand is coping with their friendship by pretending nothing is wrong and everything is how it used to be before her and Kate’s big fight and discrepancy. Marylin isn’t making any attempts to try to mend her and Kate’s friendship back together, instead she is distancing herself from Kate by choosing to hang out with cheerleaders and soccer plays over Kate, just so that she (Marylin) will become popular.
Dialectical Journal
Theme
“That didn’t seem fair, that other people could say, You’re mine and you couldn’t say, But I don’t want to be yours,” thought Marylin. (Dowell 101)
Context: During this point of the book, Marylin once again chose her cheerleader “friends” to hand out with instead of Kate. The head cheerleader Mazie automatically claimed Marylin for her own without asking and Marylin doesn’t even like her.
This quote conveys the theme of being popular is worth nothing. Friendships shouldn’t be filled with disgust and resentment. The quote shows how Marylin isn’t happy being with the cheerleaders but yet she still hangs out with them because she wants to improve her status. She cares more about being popular than being happy and being with real genuine people who actually care about her and don’t just treat her like a toy and does things without their permission. Being popular doesn’t bring happiness which is what Marlyin shows.
Literary Device
Big black shoes, cowboy boots, combat boots, whatever kind of shoes she wore, they were shoes that said, Don’t mess with me, ore, You will never be as cool as I am, so don’t even try. (Dowell 73)
Context: This scene is where Marylin realized she wanted to be a guitar player. She was at Marylin’s party who neglected to pay attention to Kate, so Kate went to watch MTV and saw all these different types of guitar players and that’s what inspired her.
Dowell’s use of imagery illustrates a visual image of shoes, but not just any ol’ shoe, a kind of shoe that shows power and confidence. The description of big, black, combat shows it’s not the everyday boring wear, the types of word that the author chose were big and bold. This conveys the idea of girl guitar players being unique and different from other girls, they don’t conform to what society makes the stereotypical girl out to be.
Character
“By looking at their eyes. People blink when they lie, so that’s a big give away.” explained Petey. (Dowell 129)
Context: Petey is Marylin’s little brother. He hangs out with Kate (who’s at Marylins before school party). They were watching murder mystery shows on TV.
This quote from Petey shows how observant and intuitive he is, who by the way is a nine-year-old. Noticing a small detail like the blinking of an eye is not what most nine-year olds would be paying attention to. This also shows he cared more about Kate than Marylin did because he talked to Kate and hung out with her. With his intuition he knew Kate felt left out and tried to keep her company.
Paragraph with Assertion
In The Kind of Friends We Used to Be, Dowell uses imagery to portray the girl guitar player that Kate is inspired to be. This is shown with the quote, “Big black shoes, cowboy boots, combat boots, whatever kind of shoes she wore, they were shoes that said, Don’t mess with me, ore, You will never be as cool as I am, so don’t even try.” (Dowell 73) with the words like black, boots, and combat. Those words are big and bold which imply being confident. It depicts a specific type of girl guitar player. Black, combat, boots don’t portray a retro girl guitar player that wears 1950s prom dresses, or makeup, and plate form shoes or sandals with spikes heels. Those types of words create and image of jeans and T-shirts who had a quiet punch and didn’t want to be another face in the crowd but all who didn’t care what others thought of her. It convey’s someone who wants to live their life no matter what others think or how hard others try to conform them.
Reflection
Common Core Standards
RL 4 Craft Structure: Determine the meaning of the words and phrases as they are used in text (figurative/connotative meanings, word choices, tone, etc)
RL 5 Craft and Structure: Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to the overall structure and meaning, as well as aesthetic impact
RL 6 Craft and Structure: Analyze a case in which grasping POV requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is meant (satire, sarcasm, irony, understatement)
The specific skills that this assignment has caused me to develop is my reading comprehension and writing skills. This is done by interacting with the books I read and analyzing them. The Dialectical journal and assertion paragraph allow me to dig deeper past the surface of the meaning and reasoning to why the author uses certain writing strategies or the deeper meaning of the context of the book (the message). Whenever I read a book now, (or any article) I automatically get into the habit of finding the theme and looking for literary devices that the author has used. This assignment has gotten me to develop and obtain those skills.
I would've benefited from the assignment more if I expanded how I analyzed the authors techniques. For all of the books I read for commentaries the only literary device I looked for was, imagery. I could've done better in recognizing other literary devices such as tone, mood, diction, or imagery. That way I would've pushed how I analyzed the text even further than I did which would've allowed me to develop more skill in that area.
In the next 72 pages of The Kind of Friends We Used to Be by Frances O’Roark Dowell, Kate and Marylin’s friendship isn’t broke but it’s not mended back together. These past 72 pages has shown how Kate and Marylin each cope with knowing their friendship isn’t how it used to be. Kate doesn’t care about being accept, in fact she wants to the rebellious unique girl that doesn’t conform. So she’s creating a new image for herself, a girl guitar play. Instead of dwelling on her friendship of Marylin choosing cheerleaders over her, she focuses her energy on writing songs. She writes about the perfect guy and what he would be like and how she would feel and all of the experiences she would have with him. In essence Kate uses music to take herself out of the real world and create her own world with her guitar. Through her music she becomes close with her enemy, Flannery, who is filling the hole in Kate’s life of where Marylin used to be. Marylin on the other hand is coping with their friendship by pretending nothing is wrong and everything is how it used to be before her and Kate’s big fight and discrepancy. Marylin isn’t making any attempts to try to mend her and Kate’s friendship back together, instead she is distancing herself from Kate by choosing to hang out with cheerleaders and soccer plays over Kate, just so that she (Marylin) will become popular.
Dialectical Journal
Theme
“That didn’t seem fair, that other people could say, You’re mine and you couldn’t say, But I don’t want to be yours,” thought Marylin. (Dowell 101)
Context: During this point of the book, Marylin once again chose her cheerleader “friends” to hand out with instead of Kate. The head cheerleader Mazie automatically claimed Marylin for her own without asking and Marylin doesn’t even like her.
This quote conveys the theme of being popular is worth nothing. Friendships shouldn’t be filled with disgust and resentment. The quote shows how Marylin isn’t happy being with the cheerleaders but yet she still hangs out with them because she wants to improve her status. She cares more about being popular than being happy and being with real genuine people who actually care about her and don’t just treat her like a toy and does things without their permission. Being popular doesn’t bring happiness which is what Marlyin shows.
Literary Device
Big black shoes, cowboy boots, combat boots, whatever kind of shoes she wore, they were shoes that said, Don’t mess with me, ore, You will never be as cool as I am, so don’t even try. (Dowell 73)
Context: This scene is where Marylin realized she wanted to be a guitar player. She was at Marylin’s party who neglected to pay attention to Kate, so Kate went to watch MTV and saw all these different types of guitar players and that’s what inspired her.
Dowell’s use of imagery illustrates a visual image of shoes, but not just any ol’ shoe, a kind of shoe that shows power and confidence. The description of big, black, combat shows it’s not the everyday boring wear, the types of word that the author chose were big and bold. This conveys the idea of girl guitar players being unique and different from other girls, they don’t conform to what society makes the stereotypical girl out to be.
Character
“By looking at their eyes. People blink when they lie, so that’s a big give away.” explained Petey. (Dowell 129)
Context: Petey is Marylin’s little brother. He hangs out with Kate (who’s at Marylins before school party). They were watching murder mystery shows on TV.
This quote from Petey shows how observant and intuitive he is, who by the way is a nine-year-old. Noticing a small detail like the blinking of an eye is not what most nine-year olds would be paying attention to. This also shows he cared more about Kate than Marylin did because he talked to Kate and hung out with her. With his intuition he knew Kate felt left out and tried to keep her company.
Paragraph with Assertion
In The Kind of Friends We Used to Be, Dowell uses imagery to portray the girl guitar player that Kate is inspired to be. This is shown with the quote, “Big black shoes, cowboy boots, combat boots, whatever kind of shoes she wore, they were shoes that said, Don’t mess with me, ore, You will never be as cool as I am, so don’t even try.” (Dowell 73) with the words like black, boots, and combat. Those words are big and bold which imply being confident. It depicts a specific type of girl guitar player. Black, combat, boots don’t portray a retro girl guitar player that wears 1950s prom dresses, or makeup, and plate form shoes or sandals with spikes heels. Those types of words create and image of jeans and T-shirts who had a quiet punch and didn’t want to be another face in the crowd but all who didn’t care what others thought of her. It convey’s someone who wants to live their life no matter what others think or how hard others try to conform them.
Reflection
Common Core Standards
RL 4 Craft Structure: Determine the meaning of the words and phrases as they are used in text (figurative/connotative meanings, word choices, tone, etc)
RL 5 Craft and Structure: Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to the overall structure and meaning, as well as aesthetic impact
RL 6 Craft and Structure: Analyze a case in which grasping POV requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is meant (satire, sarcasm, irony, understatement)
The specific skills that this assignment has caused me to develop is my reading comprehension and writing skills. This is done by interacting with the books I read and analyzing them. The Dialectical journal and assertion paragraph allow me to dig deeper past the surface of the meaning and reasoning to why the author uses certain writing strategies or the deeper meaning of the context of the book (the message). Whenever I read a book now, (or any article) I automatically get into the habit of finding the theme and looking for literary devices that the author has used. This assignment has gotten me to develop and obtain those skills.
I would've benefited from the assignment more if I expanded how I analyzed the authors techniques. For all of the books I read for commentaries the only literary device I looked for was, imagery. I could've done better in recognizing other literary devices such as tone, mood, diction, or imagery. That way I would've pushed how I analyzed the text even further than I did which would've allowed me to develop more skill in that area.