Answer TWO of the following questions in a short response, at least enough for me to see you thinking on paper, and not just giving a vague, bland response. Remember that none of these questions has one answer—there are many possible paths to explore.
Q1: Since Laymon is writing about his own childhood experiences and culture growing up, he wants you to not only see it but hear it, too. To emphasize this, he often writes the way he speaks (or spoke as a kid), using “drank” instead of “drink,” “shole” instead of “sure,” and even drops the odd f-bomb. How does this affect you as a reader? Does it help you understand or identify with him? Or does he go too far? Why would this technique make it a “best” American essay?
Q2: This essay is all about the “romance” of eating at his favorite childhood restaurant, which just happened to be attached to a gas station. According to him, what was “romantic” or “nostalgic” about this experience? What does he want you to see and appreciate about it? Why might another restaurant in town—such as McDonald’s, etc.—not have given him this sense of romance?
Q3:
Toward the end of the essay, Laymon writes about our “deeply Southern American
conundrum,” which is that “Our practices are literally poisonous…[but] the
poisonous parts of Mississippi are what make our lives and definitely our
childhoods—if we are willing to mine them—heavier, and actually most
wonderfully Southern” (55). What do you think he means by this statement? Why
was growing up in
Q4: Once he learns about Ms. Joyce and her experience working at Jr. Food Mart, he reflects, “This, now, is part of my favorite restaurant memory too” (56). How does her experience of the ‘other side’ of the restaurant change what he experiences and remembers about the place? Does it destroy the romance? Or simply change it?
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