Capturing elusive thoughts with the tip of a pencil

Capturing elusive thoughts with the tip of a pencil

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Lauren Barkley "Dreams and Reality"


This piece is about a young man named Luke who dreams of going to law school and playing baseball at the University of Mississippi. What stands in the way of his dream, however, is his father’s desire for him to remain at home in Minnesota and take up the family dairy farm in the future. Making a decision to pursue his own path, Luke flies to Oxford and tries out for the baseball team. Unfortunately, Luke can’t hold up against the stringent requirements of the team, and he is left with no choice than to return home. His family welcomes his back, and in an unexpected turn of events, his father hands him with an envelope with money and tickets back to Mississippi. I think this piece set up some interesting characters early on. Luke’s life as an athlete and cow farmer is intriguing and made me want to read about what happened to him. I also like the description of the coach on page three, very funny.
            I think the main things to address in revision should be primarily related to character expansion. There is some sense of the characters’ wants and motivations, but they feel pretty flat in many cases right now. I also was confused by the father’s final actions towards his son. It is obviously some sort of gesture of forgiveness and acceptance, but given the fact that Luke just tried and failed in Mississippi made the gift feel ironic. I liked the overall feeling if the piece, and I think with some revision and expansion, this could work really well.

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