My midterm essay was about a section from the end of Small Beauty. The most difficult part of reading this novel for me was following the confusing timeline, but it was also the literary tool that I found made the novel the most interesting. I focused my paper on how the past interacted with the present and how physical place was used as a metaphor for specific times in the past. I’m very proud of this analysis and feel that my deep dive in this section helped me appreciate the use of timeline metaphors in the rest of the novel.
One of my biggest challenges in writing has always been structure. I picture ideas for papers as a web where every detail is interconnected without a clear linear structure. This makes it difficult to establish an order that makes sense to readers. I think I was able to improve on the order I presented my ideas in the final draft from my rough draft, but I still do not feel confident that I created a strong line of connectivity from one point to the next.