Physical Description of Nancy Sand

                There are many Nancy’s within the inner workings of the Christ the King ministry alone, not to mention in all of Athens, but Nancy Sand will always tend to stick out a little. She’s a short woman reaching her middle age, but her personality and unique aura more than make up for her size. With eyes that are intensely green but constantly hidden behind oval frames, Nancy has an almost intimidating way of evaluating me whenever I speak with her. Despite her unreadable expressions, the lines spider-webbing from the corner of her eyes and mouth betray just how easily she can be made to laugh and melt the intimidating first impressions. Though not a hardened monster, Nancy is also clearly a woman of many years experience, with her gray short-cut hair and general motherly air. When she speaks, her voice demands attention and her tone makes the listener believe that whatever she might have to say, it would be worth taking note.

                Short and motherly though she may be, Nancy is a woman built stoutly and constantly seems ready to take on the world. Even people who see her regularly will admit to rarely seeing Nancy in clothes other than dark pants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie over top; her feet will always have a pair of sneakers on them, as if she’s ready to march off at any moment. Nancy’s voice is mostly indefinable, besides being louder than normal and authoritative. It’s not uncommon for her voice to crack as she grabs the attention of the students she’s constantly in contact with. If her voice isn’t enough to take a person in, her sweeping gestures with her arms will do the job—though she always keeps her arms carefully close to her own body, as if in the motion of cradling a child.

Response to The Chameleon

The aspect of the story "The Chameleon" by David Grann that I enjoyed the most was the way that Frederic Bourdin's physical features were incorporated throughout the story. His features became highly relevant in the description of his identity theft of the teenager in Texas, which meant that it was easy for me to picture him throughout the piece. I liked this in contrast to other profiles, or pieces that I read, where the description is thrown at me all at once and never brought up again, so that I spend time having to try and connect actions and words to the imagined face with much more difficulty. By keeping the features present and relevant, whether in the off-hand mention of glasses over brown eyes or the balding hair, it was easy for me to picture the man Bourdin and get through the piece with an active inner eye.

Response to Shadow of a Nation

Gary Smith utilizes out of the box descriptors for people and their actions in "Shadow of a Nation." Instead of people simply dealing with alcoholism and being impoverished, they are, "racked by alcohol and poverty" (page 221). People "huddle" and "sprawl" instead of being simply being described as dejected, and most noticeably is the way that Jonathan Takes Enemy constantly was written as looking down, eyes averted from others, always quiet. Smith showed that Jonathan was shy and conflicted without having to say he was, just as he utilized the descriptors to show how his characters were feeling or what they were thinking instead of having to spell it out to the reader. This, I believe, is what made the description of people so real and captivating; it gave the reader the job to recognize those descriptions and connect them to thoughts and emotions, rather than being force-fed the information.

Response to The American Male at Age Ten

In Susan Orlean's "The American Male at Age Ten," the ongoing description of Colin goes deeper than just his favorite superhero and physical features. "With that, he dropped the spool, skipped up the stairs of the deck, threw open the screen door, and then bounded into the house, leaving me and Sally the dog trapped in his web," Orlean says of Colin, and I think this sentence truly exemplifies Colin's description in a subtle way. Colin is described as skipping up the deck stairs, still giving him the appearance of a child, somebody with most likely few worries. At the same time, however, he had trapped a grown woman and a dog in a web of his own creation, showing how even if Colin is a child, he is still a growing human capable of many of things and shouldn't be taken too lightly only because he is young. That description by Orlean touches on the double edged sword of children; how they are carefree and innocent, yet still able to do many things that adults can, such as trapping people and keeping them captivated.