# data[].attributes.body
"Then, he chanted:

I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad...Glory hallelujah!...I am with the Lord." (p.177-178)

Rant/Rave:

This song is just really funny to me. I don't know if I just have the melody wrong or what but the song is just awful but comical, and given she described his trial from a humorous standpoint, doesn't help the goofy image I have of a guy singing this song. Especially the fact that his Lordy as a normality (and like Lordy is so strange when I type it the squiggly little red lines appear under it.) I picture like a medium size dude just like waiting to be hanged with a really looking grin on his face like he is convinced he is about to die for a logical reason, which is exactly the mindset he was in, but still.

# data[].attributes.body
"Coming between kids and their presidential monuments is like getting caught in between a lioness and her cub." (p.233)

Basic:

This analogy does not really impact the text as whole or even this part of the chapter to be honest; however it does correspond with the previous sentence she had mentioned about her nephew being pried off the marble lions that guarded former president McKinley. Honestly I have no idea what this analogy has to do with anything. I have dwelled on it, but there is nothing I can come up with that explains the significance of this analogy in the text or even in the chapter.

# data[].attributes.body
"'My sister is writing a book about our trip and I bet she's going to put you in the Mckinely chapter.'" (p.191)

Rant/Rave:

This part of the passage was comical to me because her sister knew exactly what she was going to do. She knew that her sister was not just going to write a whole chapter about the McKinely assassination itself. This is also shows how this book is not really a novel but a journal from her pilgrimage just edited for publishing purposes. It also gives the audience a look into her relationship with her sister. Throughout the novel one can see the relationship with her sister and her nephew because she it makes it known as well as she mentions that they spent quite a bit of time with her on her pilgrimage although the sister didn’t really quite enjoy it.

# data[].attributes.body
"They thought they were taking the train to Gomorrah but instead go to watch herbs dry." (p.139)

Rhetoric:

Given that Vowell sees her trip as a pilgrimage which is a religious trip, and she often makes biblical references. Her allusion to Gomorrah - a city that was destroyed was destroyed in the bible due to sexual immortality much like the Oneida Community - shows how unorthodox the community was. Just by reading the description of the community one s already given a bad taste in their mouth. With the reference to Gomorrah anyone with any biblical knowledge about the city understands that the Community was out of pocket.

# data[].attributes.body
"(Hard to believe that the candidate who lost the popular vote could actually become president of the United States. Luckily, kind of travesty never happened again.)" (p.127-28)

Rant/Rave:

When I first read this I thought she was being legit on the idea Rutherford B. Hayes was only president in history - prior to the election of 2020 - to win the election but lost the popular vote. Because my initial thought when reading this was "Well I would hate to see her reaction to the 2016 election." I had to look up what presidents that won the election but lost the popular vote, and there was one prior to the Tilden and Hayes election with Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and again in 1888 with Grover Cleveland vs. Benjamin Harrison. Then again in 2000 with Al Gore and George W. Bush. So in the end I realized it was just one her sarcastic moments.

# data[].attributes.body
"After he finishes the song, I ask him, 'Sir were you just playing 'Lean on Me'?' ... Now whenever I think of Mudd and his house I hear that song, hear Mudd serenading the limping Booth, taking his arm and helping him up the stairs, singing, "Lean on Me, when you're not strong I'll be your friend." (p.62)

Basic:

Why would Vowell include the man singing "Lean on Me" at the Mudd's home? It seems to be a bit much for the details included in the her story telling. I understand that she begins the story when she is talking about following the path of Lincoln's assassin which is to Mudd's house, and so that is where she ended up. However she goes on to

# data[].attributes.body
"Then I nod at Ghandhi, whose bronze statue stands on the square's western edge. They shot him too." (p.255)

Interpretation:

This is the very last sentence in the novel. What Vowell is trying to say is death is unavoidable. Although Ghandi is not a topic in the novel - she does mention others who were assassinated that were not the "main characters" in the novel. But this shows that no matter if an individual good or bad they are going to die whether it be in the hands of time, themselves, or the hands of another indivudual.

# data[].attributes.body
"We had of course won the Revolutionary War against the British, but no one was certain if that marked our beginning as an international force to be reckoned with, or if it was a fluke victory inspired by our willingness to die before we’ll pay too many taxes.” (p.199)

Evaluation:

She provides a different outlook for the Revolution other than a rebellion against taxes to the parent country. Her phrasing that it was willingness to die before we paid too many taxes is considered writing because it causes the reader to think on an idea that had not crossed their mind before.

# data[].attributes.body
"North America is a blond woman, South America is a brunette... the U.S. navy would swoop back in and hack her arm off at the elbow so that cargo ships could sail through the blood of her severed stump.”(p.196)

Rhetoric:

This is imagery, and it is vivid. This is impact to the reader although in the beginning of the chapter she provides an actual picture of what the coaster looked like. This is still effective because if an individual had skimmed past the chapter page they are able to see exactly what she is talking about and what made her so attracted to it.

# data[].attributes.body
"The handshake takes place in Central America...future site of the Panama Canal. Miss South America smiles, unaware two years later, the U.S. Navy would swoop in hack her arm off at the elbow so that cargo ships could sail through the blood of her severed stump." (p.196)

Interpretation:

Based on the way she described the image on the coaster has me inferring that she likes it. Throughout the text I have learned that she is into the gory gory stuff. It’s also obvious she likes it because she owns the coaster. Honestly I would not own the coaster myself but the way she describes it makes it quite interesting.

# data[].attributes.body
"Normally my sister has a bottomless patience...but its been a long day."

Reflection:

This quote reminds me of my mom in particular because my mom is a very patient person overall except on long days and her patience has worn thin. And that's and understandable thing that happens in individuals. This is sort of like a rant, but I just truly understand the place Vowell is coming from when she says what she says about her sister.

# data[].attributes.body
"I have not been particularly shocked by how much I love Owen, but I am continually pleasantly surprised by how much I like him. He's truly morbid." (p.190)

Basic:

My question is why would she spend a good portion of the beginning of the chapter on her relationship with her nephew? Like I have stated before about other seemingly irrelevant things she has mentioned in the text, if this were to be taken out of the novel the text would not lose any significance. I tried to think on ideas of why she would include this but I cannot think of you one that would be significant enough to explain why it is in the passage.

# data[].attributes.body
"It was surprising hat Guiteau would go down in history as a "disappointed office seeker" ... Even though he was, at the time of the assassination, a divorcee, a college dropout, a failed lawyer, preacher and writer. Even though, during his youthful residence at the sexed-up Oneida Community he was the one guy in a free love commune who could not get laid." (p.174)

Rhetoric:

Vowell's idea is quite ironic. She mentions that she is surprised that he would be seen in history as disappointed then proceeds to mention all his failures in life which is everything he ever really tried to accomplish - even "getting a way" with an assassination. Her repetition of the phrase "Even though" gives the reader a direct look into the irony of the statements. This increases the impact of the paragraph causing the reader to think on the idea on whether Guiteau was truly a disappointment.

# data[].attributes.body
"A little boy slumps onto the bench next accompanied by two adult male guardians, probably his father and his uncle." (p.163)

Interpretation:

Naturally when I started reading this I thought that the two male adult guardians were homosexual lovers, but I understand that's more of a modern thought though homosexuality has been a thing for years. But now that I think about it she may have been being sarcastic and knew what was going on. (I only think that because of her reputation of sarcasm because there is no textual evidence.) But I do understand that even if she were to be serious why she would think that because it was not such a common idea in the early 2000's.

# data[].attributes.body
"he refers to the Oneida Community as "the O.C." Coincidentally, The O.C. is the name of a nighttime soap opera on television's Fox networks." (p.147)

Evaluation:

This is not good writing, but it is not necessarily bad writing. Allusions are often references to something that is commonly known. Soap operas are not really commonly known - well in the younger generations. This is also a book that focuses on ideas that are usually thought about by the elderly who probably sit at home and watch their soaps. So again it is not good or bad writing. I just don't think she took into account that her book would a book that was read for an AP English class who had no intention of thinking about an assassination pilgrimage.

# data[].attributes.body
"'So at that point I came across Jonathan Edwards and his sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'. Do you know it?'" (p.149)

Rant/Rave:

This reminds of the excerpt we read and the posters we drew for AP Language and Composition. It also made me wonder why Vowell was so into the conversation especially given that she is not really a religious women. This may seem like the question in the basic but why would she engage in such a religious conversation? I understand it was not on the bases on one's own theology but a mere topic in history.

# data[].attributes.body
"Who's that?" one of the grown-ups ask. The kid considers this...proudly concluding,'It's Paul Revere!' 'Oh,' the grown-replies. Oh? That's it? No Corrections?" (p.163)

Reflection:

I feel like this all the time when I overhear certain conversations when a person either lying or just flat out wrong, and I'm just like "No one's going to fix that?" Then I especially relate to when she actually threw in her two cent about who it was actually displayed in the statue. Like I have a "bad" habit of not minding my own business and correcting people who could not careless about the topic at hand.

# data[].attributes.body
"Noyes broke the sex act down in three parts - the beginning, marked by "the simple presence of the male organ in the female," the middle, involving "a series of reciprocal motions," and of course the end, an ejaculatory expels the seed." (p.142)

Basic:

I won't pretend that this topic was a not the least bit interesting to read, but I am aware that there are people who cannot stomach the things that I can stomach. And I am aware that a quite a bit of people would be uncomfortable reading this portion of the text and the following pages. So my question is why would she include this in her novel what actual benefit does it have on the text? Because I do believe that if these pages were to be extracted from the book that the text would not lose much value. I get that there is the possibility that its because its what she does as a writer who begins writing and goes off on tangent because the mention of the Oneida Community came about because she was giving a back drop of the assassin of President Garfield. The assassin was once part of the Oneida Community which I guess gives the reader in view into the mindset of the assassin and maybe his logic.

# data[].attributes.body
"But Booth adored Brown's fight-picking, gun toting methods...'John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!'...the fact that Union soldiers turned the marching song 'John Brown's Body' into one of the top hits of the Civil War. So Booth isn't entirely misguided in thinking he'd inspire a song or poem or two himself." (p.83)

Reflection:

I see this all the time even in situations with myself where an individual sees another individual praised for a deed so they proceed to do a similar deed and fail to get the same recognition. But one thing you learn in life that just because it worked with one does not mean it'll work with another. So this piece is more of a life lesson overall because I believe that many people are guilty of believing that'll they wold receive the same results as the next man. For example, I base a lot of things I do off of Ally McBryar, but I do understand that I cannot do exactly what she does because I won't get the same results as she.

# data[].attributes.body
"I am momentarily more famous then Lincoln's assassination conspirator...I am famous as the tourist the crew shooed out...I am famous for wedging myself knuckles white and eyes closed..." (p.66-67)

Rhetoric:

Vowell uses exaggeration as well as repetition to establish how she sick she was on the boat ride and how she was perceived by the other passengers. Anyone in their right mind knows that in that moment she was not actually more famous than a conspirator in Lincoln's assassination because they got on the boat with the intent to to see his cell and the prison he was in and not sit and watch her vomit.

# data[].attributes.body
"...because of the cheery way [Reagen] yukked it up during his recovery...Just as he cracked to the doctors who were saving his life that he hoped they were all republicans..." (p.64)

Interpretation:

With already having an assassination attempt on his life and in being in good spirit - and being a republican. Naturally he was inclined to feel he "needed" to be operated on by Republicans and making sure there was not another attempt on his life. Also for Vowell to bring up failed assassination attempts show that she is not obsessed with the assassinated or the assassinator, but assassinations as a whole even the ones that never really turned out to be an assassination.

# data[].attributes.body
"' This is the largest collection of fifteen-inch Rodmans in existence.'I considered putting an exclamation at the end of the previous sentence to more accurately portray the gusto with which it was delivered." (p.78)

Evaluation:

This is something I consider ti be bad writing. Why? Just due to the fact that she addresses the sentence before and says what she thought about doing to it. It was a vain paragraph dedicated to explaining how a person felt when they stated something. Which honestly did not change the way I read or interpreted the quote even after she explained how Mike felt as he was saying it. To me, as not the strongest writer myself, it seems like a weak point in her writing. I understand she is the one to go off on a tangent based off whatever she had previously said, but this piece just looked weak.

# data[].attributes.body
"I pride myself on knowing my audience, so I'm shaken by Bennett's indifference" (p.34)

Reflection:

I myself try to people read and figure them out, but i have too experienced missing the mark. Vowell assumed that Bennett would want to go see the Seward Plaque being that he spent time with doing similar things. There are times in my life when I would witness my friends doing or saying something and based off that I would come up with my own conclusion and moved based on that. Which ultimately led to some seemingly awkward interactions; similar to Bennett not giving a flying kite about a dead man's plaque in front of his home.

# data[].attributes.body
"Lincoln is sarcastic. He's a writer. And in his sarcasm and his writing, he is who he was." (p.26)

Rant/Rave:

In this particular section of the text Sarah Vowell briefly discusses what she admires about Lincoln's speeches - which happens to be his sarcasm. This is evident due to the fact Vowell uses a plethora of sarcasm and satire in her text. For example, when she mentions the affair Jacqueline Kennedy was having with Carl Warnecke that came about while discussing a graveyard design for her husband, Vowell states, "I guess there's nothing more romantic than poring over graveyard designs." It always seems as if individuals admire things of others that reflect back on themselves; it tends to make things more personal and a more interesting

# data[].attributes.body
"In forensics novels the contents of a victim's pockets on the night of her death Say something about her character." (p.24)

Rhetoric:

Vowell alludes to forensics novels to set up for the ideas of her putting her hands in her pocket and describing her character based on what is in her pocket and what was found in Lincoln's pocket and displayed for the public.

# data[].attributes.body
"Not that I want the current president killed. Like that director, I will, for the record (and for the FBI agent assigned to read this and make sure I mean no harm - hello there), clearly state that I am obsessed with death, I am against it." (p. 60)

Interpretation:

At this point in the passage Vowell is trying to explain her morale in her seemingly cynical narration. She wants to clear up any idea of her condoning, justifying, or acting upon death. The reference to the FBI agent is a reflection of the title. When one hear's of a text titled "Assassination Vacation" and its about the assassination of United States presidents, it could lead to some raising of some eyebrows. Which may have led an FBI agent to actually reading this passage. So she wanted to make sure she had her bases covered.

# data[].attributes.body
"Powell knocked on the door, talking his way in by claiming to be delivering medicine...sheet chopped with several blows of the knife." (p. 31) - refers to both entire paragraphs

Evaluation:

The description of the attempted assassination of Secretary of State Seward is considered good writing. Reason being it gives the reader a better visual than just "Powell pistol whipped Seward's son and attempted to stab Seward." Not only is the imagery impactful, the inclusion of the story itself is good writing because it occured the same night as Lincoln's assassination which most stories focus on the story of Abraham Lincoln's assassination; Seward's attempted assassination is like a fresh thought.

# data[].attributes.body
"I see Edwin's statue almost everyday. He's so familiar and homey I would almost consider him my mascot..." (p.99)

Basic:

What I fail to understand is how she would even consider Edwin Booth being her mascot. I get that she describes him as "familiar and homey" but that does not describe her. Following that statement she explains why he could not be her mascot which mostly revolves around the idea that he has a park that gated and closed to any New Yorker and does not reside there. This is implies that him being familiar and homey is her reasoning for possibly seeing him as a mascot. Which truly fails to make sense to me. I guess maybe because the statue is located in her hometown, but I have no idea.

# data[].attributes.body
"But loving this memorial is a lot like loving this country"

Rant/Rave:
This is a different outlook for Vowell. Throughout the novel she is usually on the darker side of things where as this particular brings a different light to the passage. I mean I am not knocking this new look on things, but it is just something that catches the reader off guard especially me off guard. I am not complaining; it is just interesting.

# data[].attributes.body
"I ask Joan about the Long Branch Historical Association's plans for the church. She says they are trying to raise $3 million." (p.185)

Evaluation:

This is what I say is good writing because in this portion of the text along with many other portions of the text there is a lot of dialogue. Instead of using a bunch of direct quotes from the conversation and overbearing the reader with dialogue - because too much of anything is bad for you - the reader is just reading a normal paragraph in the novel. This keeps the audience from getting bored of the same repetitiveness that Vowell has not really made use of.

# data[].attributes.body
"Once Owen learned to walk, we started playing a game I call Frankenstein, in which I am Frankenstein's monster and I chase him around trying to harvest his organs and appendages because my monster is building another boy." (p.43)

Basic:

For a good portion of page 42 and all of page 43, Vowell goes into grave detail about her nephew and their relationship. Yes it is understood that it came from reflecting on the time she went to Powell's grave - which was the topic at the time. However, she starts talking playing Frankenstein and giving her nephew a book about spleens. I just curious on what did this portion have to do with anything and what impact could it possibly have on the text?

# data[].attributes.body
"...Booth...traveled west, assuming the alias John St. Helen...St. Helen eventually moved away....a man named David E. George had committed suicide...Before he died, George confessed he was John Wilkes Booth." (p.91)

Rant/Rave:

This particular part of the passage was extremely interesting to me due to the fact it was information that I had never thought of before. It even led me to googling the men who were allegedly John Wilkes Booth and the lawyer of John St. Helen; I even clicked a few articles. I did not necessarily read them thoroughly - so it clearly was not that interesting to me, but interesting enough for me to bring it up. It also gave me a weird feeling about the idea that a man that was supposedly killed by Union troops actually made it out alive and just continued to change his identity. It was a feeling I have a hard time describing although it was similar to the one I had when I was in the car with my stepdad and he ran over a squirrel - I know absolutely no correlation.

# data[].attributes.body
"As if I didn't just buy for my nephew a book called Frankenstein and Dracula are Friends; as if I was never nicknamed Wednesday...; as if in eighth grade English class, assigned to act out a scene from a biography...I hadn't picked Al Capone and staged the St. Valentines Day Massacre with toy machine guns and wadded up construction paper thrown everywhere to symbolize blood." (p.108)

Interpretation:

Although Vowell uses the rhetorical device repetition, I rather discuss my interpretation. Through her writing you can see a clear image of her personality; in this specific paragraph the reader can see directly into her personality. As an audience we already have seen her established relationship with her nephew so her giving him a book titled Frankenstein and Dracula are Friends - lowkey makes me picture her nephew as Denise for Hotel Transylvania - was no surprise. However, her description to what she did in her eighth grade English class shows that she is a whole other level as an outcast.

# data[].attributes.body
"I have learned...I've learned...I have also learned that the people who spend a lot of time in these old houses care very much about the houses themselves..." (p.54)

Rhetoric:

Vowel uses repetition on the phrase "I have learned" to place emphasis on the knowledge she acquired but in a more sarcastic manner. Because the knowledge of what she attained that is mentioned is mediocre knowledge. Although she may have actually learned from what she mentioned in the passage, not shy away from away from her sarcastic ideas.

# data[].attributes.body
"'Oh, I'm sure that's what she was about to say, Porn Freak.'"

Rant/Rave:

This particular quote is interesting because it is a bit raunchy. And i get that this is not really a children's book so there isn't much boundary. However I still think it to be a bold phrasing to include in the text. Like what even was the significance of even including what she said to him. I get that I have a lot of "What does this have to do with anything?" moments in this book, but the other ones include something about history which ties along with the theme of this book, but this piece in particular has absolutely nothing to do with anything. I did not include this in basic because it is not an important question, but is important enough to let me ramble on about it because i do not too much care for an answer.

# data[].attributes.body
"He tells them,
It has occurred to me that...and sound the depth and dive for things below." (p.134)

Evaluation:

Throughout the novel Vowell would mention a speech or quote in history and then include it in her text. I would consider this good writing because without some of the excerpts - like the one aforementioned - the passage would lose something. She mentions that there really is not much to the former president Garfield. But she does mention he was a leisure reader who enjoyed his leisure time which ultimately led to him discussing the value of leisure time to Hiram College in 1880. This gives the reader more personality behind Garfield.