Growing up Hard http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4937/

I liked how the author developed the theme of the question of violence involved with killing animals for food. The scene of his dad shooting the lamb and the scene with children holding the heads of chicken was a great way to show the reader their attitude towards killing animals.  I also liked the line “But to kill is not necessarily to do violence,” which establishes the theme of the story.  I liked the line further in the essay “you couldn’t call it living it was all a kind of ritualized dying,” to describe their monotonous life.  I also liked how the author developed the theme of violence from killing animals, to getting in a fight to killing humans.  I definitely got a sense of what life is like in rural areas, but i didn’t really see this as a personal essay but rather a critical essay on western rural areas with introspective and personal insight.

Lucky Girl  http://www.guernicamag.com/features/lucky_girl/

I liked how this essay showed her personal habits as it relates to birth control and then gave context to the taboo that was teen pregnancy at the time.  This essay had a lot of interesting factoids.  Also, the way in which they tested pregnancy was alarming to say the least.  I liked the line, “I wept silently hoping that anyone who saw me walking down the street would mistake my tears for the deluge outside.”  It not only made you feel bad for her but was revealing of her somewhat secretive personality.  It’s fascinating that a women would be inclined to go all the way from New York City to Puerto Rico to get an abortion.  This article also seemed to not entirely a personal essay but rather the use of personal experience to underly an issue with society.  The last sentence about the number of women dying from abortions this year further proves this point.