Neat People vs Sloppy People

Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.

In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.

In 1960, American journalist and politician Clare Boothe Luce speaks to journalists at the Women’s National Press Club. She brings up the topic of integrity. Not only does integrity affect journalists, but also the media as a whole. From the beginning, she is straightforward with the audience, she is going to give them hell. She goes on to say that everyone in the audience will be revolted, but should listen through. This prepares the room full of female journalists to feel attacked by her criticisms of the American press. Luce argues that integrity needs to be restored in the media, to do this she appeals to their values while using a defensive tone along with a positive one, while also creating

Imagery is used by many writers and this is when the writer uses visually descriptive or figurative language.

Being a neat person, I was offended by Britt’s essay when I first read it. After reanalyzing Britt’s piece, I found she was being over humorous to get her point across. Britt claims, “Neat people will toy with the idea of throwing the children out of the house just to cut down the clutter” (215). I have never heard of someone throwing their children out just to cut down on clutter. If I wanted to cut down clutter, I would have the children help me clean and then anything they missed finish, this would be a good lesson for the children while helping me to. Britt uses a very broad sense of humor in basically saying neat people would throw the children out just to not have to work as hard on cleaning the house. An even broader statement made by Britt is about dying relatives. “No sentimental salvaging of birthday cards or the last letter of a dying relative ever wrote. Into the trash it goes” (Britt 215). How could anyone neat, sloppy, rich, poor, any quality throw away such a valuable memory such as a past relatives

a metaphor, which is the comparison of two things by just stating that one thing is the other.

One more quality Britt uses in her essay to support her reasoning, is to tell her readers how wasteful a neat person is. She implies this mostly when she says, “Neat people operate on two unvarying principles: Never handle any item twice, and throw everything away.” (134) One example of this quality is, “The minute something comes to a neat person’s hand, he will look at it, try to decide if it has immediate use and, finding none, throw it in the trash.” (234) Another example is when Britt says, “Neat people throw away several toys every time they walk through then den (234). One more example is when she says, “If

Anne Bradstreet was not the typical Puritan author. She wrote sweet and loving poems that greatly contrasted from other writers of her time. She did not write the ever so popular sermons that told people that they were going to hell and there was nothing they could do about it. Bradstreet was a rarity in Puritan times, she was a very educated woman that worked on something other than being a woman in the household. She was one of a kind and the beginning of an era. Using literary criticism when reading Anne Bradstreet’s poems adds a deeper understanding of her character and difficulties in life.

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

In the writing, “Neat People vs. Sloppy People” Britt focuses on contrasting two diverse people, neat and sloppy. At first glance one would believe that her criteria is what is sloppy and what is neat, rather than how the two think. She concentrates her criteria on moral and sentimentality of the two oppositions. “They have a cavalier attitude toward possession,” Britt wrote about neat people. This explains that neat people don’t care about the sentimental value of an object. Neat people focus on neatness solely. In contrast she writes, “Sloppy people can’t bear to part with anything. They give loving attention to every detail.” This opposes neat people. Sloppy people care about each and every object individually. Sloppy and neat people are

Generally, Sloppy people say that “Neat people are bums and clods at heart”. But I disagree 100%, there is no way a neat person can be a bum; they always get their chores done before doing anything else. On the other hand, sloppy people are the true “bums and clods at heart”, here’s why they rather watch T.V on their days off rather than getting all their cleaning and getting all their chores completed before having to go back to work. A lot of people say that neat people are angry, hateful, and mean. However, neat people are actually very happy, knowing all their things are in place and clean makes them feel nice inside which creates a positive outlook on life. Suzanne Britt stats that neat people are no good to borrow from; “Neat people buy everything in expensive little portions. They get their flour and sugar in two-pound bags.” Buying flour and sugar in two-pound is a smart idea, because there is no need in getting an enormous bag that’s going to sit up in your cabinet for who knows how long. The expensive is always the better brand to purchase. Borrowing from neat people is the

Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.

Captain Tidy Vs. The Picnic People Chasing someone while wearing red tights down the street who would do that? Captain Tidy has, chasing evil litterer with “large nuclear-powered radios” down in his sleek black TidyMobile. In “A Couple of Really Neat Guys”, by Dave Barry, the narrator hates littering like HATES it.

Anne Bradstreet’s poetry resembles a quiet pond. Her quiet puritan thinking acts as the calm surface that bears a resemblance to her natural values and religious beliefs. Underneath the pond there is an abundance of activity comparable to her becoming the first notable poet in American Literature. Anne Bradstreet did not obtain the first notable poet’s title very easily; she endured sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions during her time in the New World. Despite these misfortunes she used her emotions and strong educational background to write extraordinarily well for a woman in that time.

Metaphor: a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar.