Assignment 1

Backdrop Addresses Cowboy

Starspangled cowboy sauntering out of the almost- silly West, on your face a porcelain grin, tugging a papier-mache cactus on wheels behind you with a string, you are innocent as a bathtub full of bullets. Your righteous eyes, your laconic trigger-fingers people the streets with villains: as you move, the air in front of you blossoms with targets and you leave behind you a heroic trail of desolation: beer bottles slaughtered by the side of the road, bird- skulls bleaching in the sunset. I ought to be watching from behind a cliff or a cardboard storefront when the shooting starts, hands clasped in admiration, but I am elsewhere. Then what about me what about the I confronting you on that border you are always trying to cross? I am the horizon you ride towards, the thing you can never lasso I am also what surrounds you: my brain scattered with your tincans, bones, empty shells, the litter of your invasions. I am the space you desecrate as you pass through. Margaret Atwood Analysis by; Free Association Imagery Narrator Paradox Icons Stereotypes Myths Line by line Metaphor Rhyme, Rhythm Enjambment Grammmatical Structure Structure Stanza Style Genre Steps Get the "big Idea' Decide on angle, perspective, attitude, theme Refine into two or three thesis statements Decide on 5 main ideas that reinforce the big idea,  link them to specific text Write the opening funnel paragraph Start with general and  finish with thesis statement Create paragraphs Linking statement Emotional  Reference Objective statement Bias Linking sentence Write conclusion: Rephrase thesis statement End with general perspective for meaning.