Essay#5 Reunification

Cooper Feltes

English 9

Mr. Salsich

October 12, 2010

Long Lost:

An Essay about Losing a Parent Finding Them Again

(TS) The emotional trauma of losing a parent is staggering to ponder; being informed that that person has been alive after twenty years of thinking they have been dead is even more mind-blowing. (CM) In Tale of Two Cities, this is the story that Lucie Manette has been forced into. (CM) Dickens uses his superior technique to pop emotions out of the book and make them affect you like a lifelike situation. (CS) The emotional mood of this chapter of the book astonishingly unique and expresses the feelings of the characters very well.

(TS) The emotional ambiance of the unification of Miss Manette and her father reveal what true passion that Dickens can write with. (SD) For example, On page 48, Miss Manette displays her emotional turmoil, the rolling thunder and lightning of expression,  for her father, locked up for years by the French, held captive away from his family for so long, by repeatedly shouting “weep for it, weep for it.” (Coordinate cumulative sentence) (CM) The passionate words she exclaims resonate through the chapter and force the reader to sympathize for her woes. (CM) Dickens, using and reusing a phrase, pulls the chapter together in an earthquake of tears and joy of reunification. (SD) Dickens also uses Mr. Lorry’s machine-like personality to the situation’s advantage. (CM) Mr. Lorry supposes he has the situation under control until Miss Manette says, “I entreat you good gentleman, do not speak, do not move.” (CM) Mr. Lorry is bashed my an unfamiliar feeling of sorrow that he has not yet experienced due to his inability to feel emotions. (SD) Monsieur Dufarge and Mr. Lorry, having not been in this kind of position before, are unaware of the gravity of the situation. (CM) With two “lethargic” characters in front of them, they insist on packing up and leaving Paris.(CM) This forces them to end their bond that has seemed to have  lasted so long. (CM) Dickens uses characters and words to intensify the passion of the unification of Miss Manette and her father.

                (TS) If I were in Lucie’s situation, having grown up without a father for twenty years, my heart would be in a million different places when I would finally get to meet him. (SD) Meeting a stranger who was told to be my father would make me a little untrustworthy. (CM) I might believe that the man who comes walking into my life was an imposter and didn’t deserve my attention. (CM) Though there would be no easy way of knowing, If he were my father and I didn’t believe he was, I would go the rest of my life thinking what a “pretender” the man was, although he had done nothing wrong. (SD) Aside from my possible incredulity (word from TTC), I might spontaneously get angry at the man who had detached his life from mine for so long. (CM) If he were irresponsible enough to walk out on his child then I would certainly let him have it. (CM) However, if he was like Lucie Manette’s father, locked in prison for twenty years without trial or accusation, then I would definitely be more grateful and happy for his return into my life. (SD) Happiness and uncontrollable thankfulness would be predominant in my mind if he were actually my father with well-meant or forced, like doctor Manette, purpose for depriving me of his influence.  (CM) Reuniting with a long lost relative is one of the most tearful and most joyful occasions, but with a father who you haven’t seen in twenty years, the emotion, the driving force, the feeling of love, and down the scale to enragement and pure anger, the brutal passion of the brain, is amplified to an astounding degree (Coordinate cumulative sentence). (CM) My father would accept me and I would accept him as family and we would spend hours crying over lost time. (CS) My feelings would be all over the place is I was in Lucie’s situation, my father being gone for twenty years and finally getting to meet him.

                (TS) Losing a parent at a young age is frightening to think about, even more so when you are informed that that parent has been alive all the time that you thought they were dead. (CM) To Lucie, the thought is inescapable, for she experienced it when her father returned to her life. (CM) The mood of the situation was so strong that I experience all the emotions that Lucie was feeling, to the point where I thought I knew the trauma of losing a parent; reality came back into play, though, and Lucie was the one that really was feeling the mixed emotions of finding a long lost parent.(CS) Lucie has a strong mind, so brave, so accepting, so powerful, to accept her father, captivated for so many years, back into her life with open and loving arms.

Self Assessment-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An issue I see recurring in my work is the trouble of finding synonyms for certain key words that are used frequently, in this case "emotion". I especially like my varied use of sentence lengths, particularly noticeable in the opening and closing paragraphs. These paragraphs, though, are the ones I had the most trouble with, for a reason I am unsure of, though I think it was because of trying to combine both body paragraphs into two sentences to end the essay

Personal Grade: B+