1. Brideau’s main point is the importance of having
hope while going through a catastrophe or hard times. She illustrates this
point throughout the essay by telling Lydia’s story, but she doesn’t explicitly
say it until the last lines of the essay.
2. Brideau uses the third person to tell Lydia’s
story. Typically, I like to read material in the first person, but I think that
Brideau’s use of third person is captivating. Her simple sentences of ‘she did
this’ and then this happened so ‘she did that’ make the story so interesting
and made me want to keep reading it.
3. Brideau makes her narrative come alive with
vivid description and detail of Lydia’s story.
To describe the setting she uses words like “chemical odor”, “toxic”,
“brown rushing water”, the description of the water rising to about seven feet,
“perch”, and “waited alone in the water”.” To describe Lydia, she uses
“slender”, “soft spoken”, “she cried over her patients’ conditions too much.”
She talked about Lydia needing to “keep her head.” These descriptions appeal to
reader’s emotions because they vividly portray a small, sweet, elderly woman
perched at the top of her closet while her house floods with dark, dirty water.
4. Since Health
Affairs is a magazine focused on health policy and research, its audience
would most likely be health care workers and medical researchers. Brideau’s
tone is not overly formal and scientific. It is simple and honest, which
creates a moving piece that the readers would respond to. Phrases like “countless
people in shelters that had once been a hotel, convention center, sports arena,
school, church, YMCA”, “enormity of the double hurricanes”, and “it was my privilege
to meet and serve them” cerate the tone.
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