On Conroy, Dillard, and Gill

I think I took something different from each author's essay. But I found the most inspiring, touching things it Conroy's, Dillard's and Gill's essays.

Conroy's essay was different from what I was expecting. She (?) told the story about how her father abused her family, and how it led her to write. My favorite part was the last paragraph, where her sister told her it didn't officially happen unless they had written it down. "He was raising an American novelist and an American poet - and we wrote it down" was how she ended. It left a really big impact, and was a great way to end the story. I felt like she was saying you should write down things that happen to you, so that you can remember what happened.

With Dillard, I found a great connection because I love drawing. But you can relate her story to writing also. "A given object took no particular time to draw." she said, "Instead, you, the artist, took the time or you did not" This is true for both writing and drawing. Either you take the time to make it good, or you don't. It really tells you about how you get as much out of it as you put into it. And in the end, she said that she just stood up and went to play some baseball. While initially it seemed like she was giving up, but thinking about it, I realized that she was also saying that sometimes it's good to take a break too.

 Finally, Gill's one seemed to be about discovering words and how they can describe the world around us so brilliantly. I feel like a small part of his writing is almost a tribute to his mom, who first introduced him to words. I found that really sweet, especially since she had died while he was still young. But his essay also talked about words in themselves, and his wonder at their magnificence.