Reading Response #4
In his essay “Burl’s,” after showing some examples of the “hazy border between the sexes” in his daily life, Bernard Cooper makes an important conclusion that “Any woman might be a man.” Implicitly comparing to gender’s line, the contrasting between of his parents’ closet could be considered as a resemblance claim, giving the writer an idea of the spaces between girl and boy that have no need to be classified. Moreover, to maintain the persuasive and frank tone for the essay, most of the evidence comes from his realistic personal experience of an eight-year-old boy and organizes in a creative arrangement. Starting by “two-women-have-Adam’s-apples” story, then mentioning about his trouble of “doing an imitation of Mary Injujikian” in front of his mom, and finally getting back to the first story for the conclusion, the writer creates an unusual arrangement, in which the readers are required to look for the connection between the separate stories by themselves, then gain more interest and excitement for the essay. On the other hand, skillfully twitching his sexuality story to the second part is a smart step that he has enough spaces to describe the background before honestly telling ...
