Sarah Vowell

For over a decade I’ve considered Sarah Vowell to be one of my favorite authors due to a shared passion for history and my enjoyment of what Duffy considers to be an “idiosyncratic voice” (“Thus always to tyrants”). Though being most famous for lending her voice to the character Violet from the movie “The Incredibles”, Vowell is fairly well known for her work with public radio and, of course, her books (Handy, “‘Assassination Vacation’: Dead Presidents”). However, while I’m charmed by her oddball

During the period of colonization, John Winthrop lead the Puritans, a new religious group, across the Atlantic to settle in Massachusetts Bay Colony. By the 1630s the colony had established a theocracy that supported its conservative culture. Sarah Vowell discusses the functionality of the Puritan community in her editorial, The Wordy Shipmates. She uses several excerpts from the play The Examination of Mrs.Anne Hutchinson at the court of  Newton, November 1637 written by Anne Hutchinson, to form

Sarah Vowell is a renowned American writer who has achieved considerable amount praise due to her mesmerizing essays as well as social commentaries. The art of writing itself is a difficult process. There are unique methodologies along with techniques, which must be taken into account here. However, we must also be open-minded enough to understand that one method which may work for one author may not be as appropriate for another. If we were to analyze the process that is characteristic of Sarah

“Shooting Dad,” by Sarah Vowell, is about two completely different groups, with contrasting views, that can learn to get along with one another. The reader learns through unsubtle clues that Vowell is a Democrat and her father is a Republican. These collective groups offer completely different viewpoints on many topics, therefore Vowell has a hard time getting along with her father. Vowell is not a strong supporter of guns; however her father has magazine subscriptions devoted to gun ownership

Sarah Vowell’s use of hyperbole in her essay helped develop her humorous tone; the exaggerations presented aided the audience in capturing an image of the relationship Vowell and her father had. One example was in the introductory paragraph: “You could have looked at the Democratic campaign poster in the upstairs window and the Republican one in the downstairs window and seen our home for the Civil War battleground it was.” This is an example of hyperbole because Vowell’s home is not literally a

American Dreams Lit. Analysis The American dream exists within the minds of individuals, who live in communities. We can interpret the ideas of that dream based on the communities themselves. In The Wordy Shipmates, we follow John Winthrop, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson and learn their idea of, and path to the American Dream. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl we get to know Harriet’s struggles and how she ultimately achieves her American Dream. In both books, we find out that

particular subjects. In a story by Sarah Vowell, she describes growing up with her father who was very political and had a passion for firearms. The environment she grew up in made her the person she is today. Mary Ann Cooper had a personal story that shows how her perspective changed because of her family. All family and personal crises are resolved by strong family bonds. Families are brought closer when a family member is lost. In the article Shooting Dad, Sarah Vowell talks about her dad and his wishes

“Shooting Dad” by Sarah Vowell tells the interesting story of a girl with views that oppose that of her father's. Sarah’s father, Pat, works as a gunsmith and is a massive gun enthusiast, while Sarah herself is more into music. Throughout this story, Sarah relates to the reader how passionate her and her dad are about their different hobbies and perspectives. With all of the tension in the house from the drastically different points of view, they must figure out how to coexist. Sarah and her father

“ARM WRESTLING WITH MY FATHER” BY BRAD MANNING AND “SHOOTING DAD” BY SARAH VOWELL In these two stories, both authors depict the condition of his/her parent/child relationship in spatial terms and their perception of gradual changes by expressing the hardship of understanding affection from each of their father during their childhood. Although these two are connected, each author has different conditions in terms of relationship with their own father and ways of describing to depict their stories

Recognize Different Types of Love Both “Arm Wrestling with My Father” and “Shooting Dad” written by Brad Manning and Sarah Vowell, respectively, portrays a damaged and rough relationship that a son and/or daughter holds with his father. Although they both find themselves struggling, they are dealing with different things, Manning is dealing with a physical bounding, while Vowell finds herself handling a more emotional and communicative type of bonding. Eventually, both characters find themselves