Reflective Essay Outside Reading: February 21

Reflective Essay Outside Reading

“Paranormal Activity” by Stef Willen

(Column 8 of Total Loss: A Column About Inventorying Other People’s Tragedies)

McSweeney’s February 17, 2011

            As the title “Paranormal Activity” alludes to, in this piece Stef Willen discusses her encounter with a ghost.  While staying at a Bed and Breakfast, she meets a couple who is determined to convince her of the reality of the three ghosts that inhabit the Bed and Breakfast as well.  At the beginning of her essay, Willen is entirely skeptical of the existence of ghosts.  However, as her piece continues, she begins to believe in the possibility of “paranormal activity.”   By making appropriate rhetoric choices, Willen is able to lead the reader through this hilarious progression and keep him or her engaged along the way.

            Willen crafts a humorous, and almost ridiculous, tone in this essay.  When one character, Bob, attempts to convince her of the ghost that is sitting on the couch next to her, she juxtaposes her explanation of him as a character and is able to introduce sarcasm to her essay.  “Yesterday, I learned that Bob’s special power was guessing the gender of unborn things…  Now, where I saw empty chairs and throw pillows, he claimed to see the souls of people who were not of this world” (3).  By adding this sense of humor, Willen is able to keep the reader engaged and leaves them wanting more.  She also seems to exaggerate a lot that happens in her recount of her stay at the Bed and Breakfast.  She lends an entire paragraph to discussing the lust she feels towards this ghost and uses a lot of short sentences to keep the tension high.  “I closed my eyes and felt myself fall further into a warmth, and it was exactly like falling into the dress of a beautiful woman, all the way to the buttons.  The warmth was real” (5).  Such language definitely adds to the ridicule of the piece and kept me completely engaged as I read Willen’s essay.  However, the tone that she adopts would not be appropriate for an AP essay.  Despite the informality though, the humor that Willen employs is definitely her biggest strength.  In crafting such a hilarious essay, she leaves the reader wanting more. 

            Willen is also effective in constructing sentences rich in imagery, which further adds to the ridiculous tone she adopts.  The reader can picture everything that Willen explains, and she thus is able to communicate efficiently.  “I opened my bedroom door a crack, … put on tinted lint balm, and got into bed and waited” (6).  Willen often also goes into so much detail that not much is left up for imagination.  “I could lounge in the parlor on a Victorian medallion-back sofa and flop my hand into one of several nearby bowls of bon bons, pop two into my mouth at once” (2).  This imagery is vital in creating the ludicrous tone that Willen implements in her essay, and as a result, the reader is able to simply sit back and enjoy an outlandish tale.