ENGL 1020 - Comparison of STark and Paterniti PDF

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Essay on Peter Stark: Reading on the river, and Michael Paterniti: reading on the river. Have works cited and line references....

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ENGL 1020 – 19 February 2020 Comparison of Stark and Paterniti Peter Stark’s renowned story “As Freezing Persons Recollect the Snow: Hypothermia” showcases in a chilling second-person narrative the frightening experience of an individual going through the stages of a simple shiver to hypothermia. This particular story is fictitious in that it was not written from a real person’s account but Stark’s use of cold hard facts in his work makes the story feel authentic and the character real. He uses persuasive language that leads the reader through each bodily response to the cold and how it continues to try and neutralize its core temperature. He describes this in great detail taking a more clinical approach, “This phenomenon, known as the hunter’s response, can elevate a 35-degree skin temperature to 50 degrees within seven or eight minutes.”(1) Similarly to how doctors would describe any function of the body through a diagram. In contrast, Michael Paterniti’s story, “11:20” depicts a real event, the 1999 Columbine High School Shooting. Paterniti takes more creative licenses when describing the occurrence. He uses more emotional language to have the reader experience the horror, and panic from the ground floor making the reader feel they are amongst the students, experiencing everything in real-time. Both of these styles of writing are very effective and brings the literary work to life in their own way. That being said it is also important to understand why these writers have decided to write more factually or more exaggeratedly. Both styles achieve and strive for different reactions in their readers. Paterniti’s goal with “11:20” is to elicit an emotional and impassioned response from the reader by using compelling and descriptive sentence such as, “Before Lance Kirklin, a real boy, had his jaw blown off and had to communicate by squeezing hands, and before Daniel

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Rohrbough, a real boy, lay sprawled on the stone walk among the saplings as students leaped over him like cows fleeing from some medieval abattoir.”(2) Paterniti does not have to take the more factual route with his story because he does not have to validate or prove to the reader the incident took place. His goal isn’t to prove to the reader that his story is real, the writer intends to intensify the horrors of a mass shooting of children. If his writing style was more factual and precise, his essay would resemble the news reports, which would not elicit the same impact on the reader. Stark’s story is a scenario, it’s not recanting an actual event with an actual person. Not to say this situation does not happen but the writer is not writing from personal experience or writing a biography. The writer uses more factually based writing for the opposite effect of “11:20”. It is not trying to create a very emotional and impactful response from the reader. Then it would be read and understood as if you were reading a scene from a novel. He uses facts to solidify the situation to make the character believable and the circumstances they find themselves in more intense. He describes the heart in this sentence, “At 86 degrees, your heart, its electrical impulses hampered by chilled nerve tissues, become arrhythmic.”(1) Stark’s writing style is to present facts and experiences through a compelling narrative, while Paterniti’s style is to create a compelling narrative through experiences and facts. Neither styles are better than the other, it is up to each writer for themselves to decide what literary goal they are trying to accomplish through their writing.

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Works Cited:

1. Stark, Peter. Reading on the River: A Literary Anthology. Fountainhead Press, 2017. pp. 2-9 Accessed 19 February 2020 2. Michael, Paterniti. Reading on the River: A Literary Anthology. Fountainhead Press, 2017. pp.15-16 Accessed 19 February 2020...