Personal Essay?

<p>My friend asked me to read his rough rough draft of his essay. It's really personal, so yeah. Comments would be greatly appreciated for him. (I think this is better because people he doesn't know get to read it). Thanks. The end seems cliched a little bit, so can you guys help fix it for him? </p>

<pre><code>“What the ***** is wrong with you?” “Just shut the ***** up!” “Where is the money?” “Leave or else I’ll call the *****ing police!” I suddenly wake up in my bed hearing the screams of both of my parents. To a typical person, these sounds may perturb them, especially when it is only five in the morning. I guess, to my chagrin and through my own experiences, they are not. Ever since I could remember, this has been a habitual occurrence in my family—screams, tears, sorrow, and the occasional curse that taints the fragile silence of dawn (too cliché). One may conclude that I have no family, only a hodgepodge of people with different beliefs, morals, and personalities living under one roof. To a certain extent this is true; indeed, I do not have a family.
Under the middle-class façade of “moderate wealth”, pleasure, and happiness lie several broken spirits nominally united under the family name. My father, who is rarely home during the day and even at night, occasionally comes in to greet us and gives us our “lunch money”. He generally comes home at one in the morning with a pallid, reddish face, a byproduct of his “social drinking”. Likewise my mother, a middle age Asian woman with ample knowledge, spends her time in a food court inside a local mall, trying to convince shoppers to buy some Thai fast food. She works from seven in the morning until ten at night, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year. My grandma is an aging woman from a period of Korean-Japanese segregation and prejudice. Her sight, her hearing and her consciousness slowly ebb away from this world, making her into a feeble woman unfit to take care of even herself. That leaves me with my brother, the closest person I have to a family. He is another lost soul in the midst of trauma--a stout, short boy with a brownish tan and crooked glasses. Even though I try to guide him through school and life, he rarely stays at home and frequently plays with his friends in their houses. I can’t blame him.
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<p>Living in La Canada, an upper middle-class neighborhood Los Angeles County, it is quaint to believe that a family does not have enough food to eat or enough money to pay the bills on time. But here we are. After fourteen years living in this country, my parents have finally separated. (I guess it’s unorthodox for Asians to divorce). My father now lives in his office, continuously working on various engineering projects to support my brother and me. He drives home from work every morning to greet us and give us rides to school. “Albert--son, go away from here as far away as you can”, he told me once in the car, “come back to visit when I have died.”<br>
To a certain extent, I do wish to move as far away as I possibly can. I want to escape the fetters of the social façade and my family’s struggle for livelihood. (add more). Even though my family is broken and detached, it is still something I can claim for myself. It is my family.</p>

<p>Quite weird</p>

<p>o_o; First of all, is he Asian? Second of all, is he writing this to colleges? oo;;;;;</p>

<p>That is really heartfelt, and I think that it will work well (almost brought me to tears, reminded me a little about my family when I was younger, although my parents now have a happy marriage). But I think that the last little paragraph is not needed. I think that it should be ended with either a famous quote that applies to the situation, or a quote from either parent that might sum it up. But I think that with a story like that, all loose ends might not have to be completely tied up.</p>

<p>i think it's a really great subject and opening, but he really needs to do more actual explaining and less just trying to use big words. it seems like he's trying to throw around vocabulary to show he's smart, which i'm sure he is, but his writing isn't that great and he says a lot, but doesn't say much. he needs to explain the problems in his family and why he wants to get away from them. he should talk more about his brother. he should try to use simpler and more effective language, not just try to throw in a lot of big words. also, try to avoid passive voice. but it's a great subject, i think it could become a great essay.</p>

<p>Yeah, I agree with poufifiedbumbum, I was thinking the same thing when I first read it but, but forgot to mention the whole big vocabulary thing.</p>

<p>thanks you guys. I'll tell him that.</p>

<p>maybe you should show us the prompt, if there is one, cuz this essay doesnt seem to have a point. It seems like just a rambling about his dysfucntional family, and in the last sentence he tries to scramble together the idea that he has unconditional love for them or something. This could end up being a great essay about unconditional love if after what he has now (which really only sounds like an opening) he told a story about something his family did together or some other instance that displayed that they do actually love eachother.</p>

<p>I will end with a quote from Joe Dirt
"Home is where you make it"
"You like to see homos naked? That doesn't really help me"</p>

<p>the thing is. He just wrote it to get a lot of stuff off his chest. It was not based on a specific prompt. Just a catharsis.</p>

<p>he should elaborate more on how this has affected him personally.</p>

<p>also: doesn't pallid mean pale? i'm not sure if a face can be pallid and reddish at the same time.</p>