Mr. Rogers and Colin Duffy
“You were a child once too”
Today we are discussing children and childhood; how our heroes are portrayed and how kids are portrayed. We are so used to seeing articles written in the ordinary boring style. The two articles in question bring to light, so many different aspects of what makes a compelling story.
If you do not just love Mr. Rogers after reading the first article, Can You Say…Hero?, then you’re a obviously cold and unfeeling alien. This article is incredibly and undeniably amazing in the story and the way it was written.
It was a story about Mr. Rogers but it was also a story about Tom Junod, the writer. I’ve only ever read one article that brings in the writer’s perspective alongside the subject’s. Inside The Murky World of Butterfly Catchers It gave the story more depth and let the readers have a glimpse behind the curtain, if you will. We were compelled not just by Mr. Rogers but by Tom as well; we cared about the both of them and in how their story would end. By seeing how Mr. Rogers touched Tom’s life even though he was just a reporter, shows us the type of man Mr. Rogers was rather than just telling us. It was personable in the way it was written, I could feel this character that was Tom, on the other side of the keyboard pouring his soul into this story. I almost wish if the ending wasn’t so perfect that it was longer so I could keep reading, it was that good. There were multiple characters, that weren’t just thrown in there but carefully crafted and well thought out. We saw every part of Mr. Rogers the intimacy, the frailty of age, the genuineness, the love, the orneriness and the imperfections. Mr. Rogers was not perfect, he was well near sainthood but we was human; he had flaws. We saw his colorblindness and his “greed” but neither of these were a detriment to his character. They were all things that made a complete image of the man.
“The American Male at Age 10” is an article that challenges our thought process of what a good profile should be. Susan Orlean had a revolutionary idea when she decided to pursue a profile story on Colin Duffy, an ordinary ten-year-old boy in America. She also used a version of the first person approach, using I and we, but not going into as much depth as Tom did. It was just about Colin and the way he saw his life, there was no grandiose message, no tragic ending just life through the eyes of a ten-year-old. It gave us an interesting perspective of children at that age because we rarely think that they can understand harsh concepts like sex, abortions or money I noticed the use of detail in this story and the way that everything was described, I was able to imagine it as if I was there. I felt intwined in his story like I was caught in the traps he liked to make and I felt like I knew Colin even without ever seeing a picture of him.
Both of these stories are unique in their own way and have given light ways of writing that I haven’t ever given much thought to until reading them. I am excited to see what I will be able to adapt into my own writing.
