Monday, September 1, 2014

Essay #1 His Last Game by Brian Doyle

The essay His Last Game by Brian Doyle is one meant to show the inner-psyche of a person with ADHD. Two brothers on their drive to get some sort of Ritalin-like prescription are on a drive. They both make a couple bets down the line and start to reminisce about the past and their experiences. However, though the essay may be relatively interesting to read, I believe that it was not without its faults. Whereas the essay took certain stylistic liberties, such as having the sentence structure gradually change from shorter more focused sentences into longer more random ones, I feel as though the actual content of the essay and the memories ingrained within the words becomes lost. The bets and the basketball game are resolved in such ways that only the brothers would understand. However, I suppose since this is a simply just a memory, we should be  trustworthy of his experiences here.
I would assume this piece was written for two types of audiences with two different purposes. The first audience would be those with relative ignorance ADHD, and the latter being those with ADHD. I feel like the way the essay was written, it was supposed to be a gateway into the way one with ADHD would think. The Ignorant audience would be able to grasp the random and arcane nature of not being capable of staying focused and constantly  digressing and returning to and fro the subject that was supposed to be discussed. I also think the audience with ADHD was supposed to gain a more empathetic reaction, and moreso be able to be drawn in with the author's sentimental story and be swept by the author's pathos.
Though the piece was extremely confusing, I think it does a relatively fine job at being a sort of threshold for understanding those with ADHD. I believe that the author's experiences and his story was compelling enough to hold me for that.

A Closed window. Those outside the house can peer in (get a taste of ADHD) and see what it's like, and those already in the house can see everything that the author has to offer.

Picture Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Gordijnen_aan_venster.JPG

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