Exploratory Essay Reflection
For my exploratory/ expository essay, I chose to discuss the short story, “It Was A Different Day When They Killed The Pig” by João Ubaldo Ribeiro. While reading, I noticed that there were many questionable parts of this story. The main character Aloisio goes through phases on how he feels about his family tradition of killing a pig. Something I can relate to, not being able to do something because I am too scared to do it, been there done that. The purpose of this essay was to explore and illustrate one or more of the psychoanalytic concepts by Sigmund Freud. For the context, I used examples from the short story “It Was A Different Day When They Killed The Pig”, and from Freud’s “Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis”. After reading the story a few times, the two ideas that were visible were repression and wishful impulse.
In the story, Aloisio lacked his father’s attention. He noticed that his sisters always received more attention and wanted to do anything to get that attention. He sacrificed his feelings and kept quiet during the tradition in order for his father to give him attention as well. Aloisio watched the tradition the whole time despite it bothering him immensely, so he can create a greater connection with his father. All of this relates to concepts discussed by Freud. The purpose was to use those details and connect them to Freudian concepts, which I was able to do after reading the story 4-5 times.
However, I did have difficulties writing. As for the audience, my professors, professor Yankwitt knows the story and Freud, whereas professor Von Uhl does not know anything. My job is to explain the details and Freudian concepts in a transitional flow so my audience can understand. I am not supposed to summarize either. My main problem with writing essays is that I summarize a lot. As for the audience, they don’t want a summary, they want a flow in which they understand as they read and that they do not get bored while reading. I had to rewrite my essay because I couldn’t relate the details to Freudian concepts and prove how they connected. I wrote on paper about some details to make sure that I was keeping a balance between analyzing and connecting, not just summarizing. Another problem I have is repetition while analyzing. Sometimes, I run out of ideas and I tend to reword previous sentences thinking I can write it differently, but actually, it is a waste of words and space, and it makes nothing better for the reader/audience. I went to the writing center and also checked with my tutor about my essay. I made many mistakes and it made me end up rewriting the essay. However, I am confident that my final essay is way better and improved than any other essay I’ve written for FIQWS.
