Often when one is called unreasonable, people tend to think of someone who is difficult, high maintenance, and hard to get along with. When reading the novel, Unreasonable Woman, the author Diane Wilson shares her unreasonable fight against pollution in her quaint bay in Seadrift, Texas. The book paints a great picture of her tedious fight against those polluting her precious bay, but after seeing her speak in person one might argue that her spoken word is much more effective than her written word.
Diane Wilson exemplifies the strong Southern woman that is depicted in her heroic story. Wilson is definitely unreasonable, never stepping down to those who may get in her way of accomplishing what she has planned. From the lunacy of hunger strikes to the sinking of her own shrimping boat, this woman has no boundaries as to where she will go. Often difficult to please, Wilson usually gets her way, even if that means going to jail for what she believes in. Having an immense bond with the bay in Seadrift, Texas, Wilson only wants what is best for her bay. Many lawmakers, corporate officials, and townspeople will say that she is hard to get along with because Wilson does not respond to the word no. The resilience that is instilled in this woman is incredible and is what drives her to do what she does best, being unreasonable.
Diane Wilson spoke with much enthusiasm and purpose. Standing up and taking her place at the podium she greeted everyone with a warm southern “How yall doin”. Right then and there she captured the attention of the audience with her in your face style and loud call for individuals to take a stand in what they believed in. Speaking about a story when she was on a hunger strike, Wilson brought up the point of how ignorant people were to shrimping , that a newspaper published “Stripper on Hunger Strike” on the front page of their paper. She carried the conversation very well for a person who had only obtained a high school education and was not used to speaking in front of people. The Convocation was much more effective than the book.
Wilson is just a regular woman fighting for a cause. Seeing her in person and listening to her speak really gives the reader a greater respect for what she has done. As in the book the language is written in the way she speaks, incorrect and with a thick southern drawl but when she speaks in person she exudes a strong aura of confidence. The use of this type of language creates a common ground between Wilson and her audience. Wilson shows the audience that even a “nobody” from Texas without an education can make a difference. Using many inspirational quotes such as Nelson Mandela’s, “We are often afraid of our greatness” and “People don’t put themselves at risk, things change when you put yourself at risk”, her message was much more clear and forceful when it was not hidden behind all of the EPA facts and regulations. She gave most a strong feeling of “you can do anything you want to” and “you don’t need nobody but yourself” to accomplish what your fighting for.
The effectiveness of the Convocation speech was exponentially more effective than reading the book. Wilson’s book creates a long time line of events that read off to the reader as lifeless and abhorring. Wilson and her editors try to convey a southern language that is used throughout the book, but that language is often outweighed by the overuse of metaphors and proper verbose language that publishing companies like to use. The book tends to be more of a glorified story of the adventures of a crazy Texas woman who will go to point blank to get what she wants. The book does not allow the reader to understand the real person under the rugged shrimper because the book depicts her as a fierce creature that has one thing on her mind, herself.
Many times people’s messages can be much more effective and personal when you hear the person speak in person rather than through literature. Last year during the presidential election I read Barack Obama’s novel, Dreams From My Father. Being as conservative as I am, I do not care for Barack Obama, I but wanted to be more educated about the future president. I really did not like the book and felt just as empty as I had before I read it. I decided to take advantage of my opportunity to see the President speak. When seeing him speak he was able to convey a much stronger message. The speech brought what was in the book to life for me. I really felt that I understood his positions better from hearing him speak his story. The message was much clearer and stronger in person than through the literature.
Wilson’s novel had a different effect of relaying the message to her reader than did the Convocation speech. The message was much more concise and personal in the Convocation speech. In the book the message was identifiable but the reader was bogged down with heavy facts about EPA standards that often distracted the reader from the central message. When seeing a person speak, their stories and messages come to life and create enthusiasm in the audience about what they are being told by the author.
Reflective Essay
My overall goal for this essay/paper was to really wrack my brain to bring back all of the writing skills that I have learned throughout my life. I had not sat down in a classroom or sat down and written a paper since the beginning of April . Writing has always come as somewhat or a struggle for me so I really wanted to put all my effort into this paper to see what I could come up with.
My thesis for the piece was that Diane Wilson’s message and purpose was much more well represented and received through the convocation speech rather than through the book that we were required to read.
The audience for this piece of writing was my professor Dr. Simon. But on the other hand I wrote it for myself to look back on and learn from.
The essay had changed quite a bit from the drafting process. I originally had decided to do more of a compare contrast facts within the book and the convocation speech, but later the idea and the facts for my new thesis jumped into my head and from there I drafted support for my argument.
I liked the argument that I created because it was different than I had originally planned. I also used a personal experience to bring out a different light on the argument bringing it into reality.
I encountered problems with the organization of my essay. In high school we tended to stick to the five-paragraph essay rather than creating our own template for that. At one point I had troubles separating the paragraphs.
In high school we wrote a lot of essays on literature that we wrote and tried to pull the means of that literature out and create an argument from there. I tried to pull facts from the texts and speech to enhance the overall effect of the essay.
I learned how to pull in real life experiences to enhance the creditability of the paper. I still need to sharpen my skills with transitions between paragraphs.
