The Fourth State of Matter by Jo Ann Beard really made me think about who I am as a writer. She uses details that doesn’t over do her point but it’s is direct and focused on a specific goal. She plays with our minds as if she has our minds in her hands first starting off as if this whole personal essay is going to be talking about her dogs, then we realize it’s much deeper than that. We start to see relationships forming with the dogs and herself, and she takes it a step father by explaining the relationship between the dog and the odd quote saying
“She is Pavlov and I am her dog.”
Though this is an odd thing to say this is how she feels and I appreciate it. Thinking about this quote aren’t we all all pets to out dogs through there eyes? Back to the personal essay I also appreciate how she uses her personal experience through her own eyes to tell this perspective of this story. Also the back and fourth from the attention being on the dogs and on her actual work life and how they coexist together. Not only the relationship of the dogs but the relationship between her and her ex husband that makes little appearances throughout the story. The ex husband usually being compared or looked at compared the dogs, I think it’s almost humerus how she compares the two wishing the dog would leave and the husband would lay on the the blanket that’s the dog lays on. The quote is:
”I wish my dog was out tearing up the town and my husband was home sleeping in a blanket”
Then we later see the problem between the husband and herself which is she has an obsession over her dogs that drove him to leave her. But she is struggling with the intrinsic feeling of not wanting to let her dog go even though she’s very sick.
Then we see a shift in focus with the shooting talked about in the personal essay and we see that its not only about the dogs and Overall the end blows my mind and makes me wish that there was more to read. There’s so many series of important events that hit all at once.