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

EVALUATION

Honestly the last two pages were my favorite pages of the book. Not because it's over (maybe a little), but because she actually explains herself. She tells us why she doesn't believe in God, and why she loves history so much. I also really love the last sentence because even though she is very focused on three main assassinations throughout the book, this really hits home and shows that so many great people have been killed, just for doing something they think is right. She shows that not everyone is going to accept you, like many readers don't, and that no matter what there's always going to be someone who wants to bring you down, but you shouldn't be scared to do it because there will always be a person out there like Sarah Vowell who will admire your actions, and love everything you work towards. I am starting to believe that that is the purpose of this book.

# data[].attributes.body
"There Is one thing that the assassinated Americans have in common. Fate seems to grant each man one good day of grace and whimsy before he bleeds." (Pg. 211)

INTERPRETATION

I think that Vowell includes this because she wants to tie all the assassinations together in someway. It shows what each of them have in common rather than their differences, and almost brings the reader closer to the presidents in a way, by humanizing them more.

# data[].attributes.body
BASIC

Even as the book ends, the purpose is still unclear. I know, I've put that for almost all my basic entries, but it's really my only question other than why did Vowell want to write the book (also falls under purpose), and why is she so interested in dead presidents?

# data[].attributes.body
RAVE

As boring as most of this book was, I do applaud Sarah Vowell for somehow making parts of it funny or interesting. I know that it is just her personality, but without it, it would literally just be a history book. The humor and personification and very vivid imagery can put the reader in her shoes and get them more engaged, which is always a good thing.

# data[].attributes.body
"North America is a blond woman. South America a brunette. Both of them are white. Swimming between the Atlantic Ocean and the pacific, both women clasp hands in friendship." (Pg. 196)

RHETORIC

By personifying North and South America, Vowell makes the story less boring, and creates a more vivid picture in the reader's head. This is a very good strategy and writing style.

# data[].attributes.body
"...having wasted nearly 2 hours sidetracked in a mall parking lot where we had stopped for lunch and gotten waylaid by a deranged woman who called the cops alleging that our rental car was responsible for the apostrophe-sized scratch on her Pontiac Grand Am." (Pg. 191)

REFLECTION

I can relate to this situation because my family is constantly going through problems like this, and I know so many people who overreact the way this woman did. It seems like every time my family goes on a trip something bad happens on the drive there or back.

# data[].attributes.body
"... While Owen and I sat in the hundred degree heat staring at ants frying on the asphalt all because I wanted to see the tomb of another assassinated Ohio president" (pg.191)

INTERPRETATION

Again, this weirds me out, but I think Vowell's point of including this gory detail is to show that she's not afraid to be who she is, and she is trying to show the audience that everyone has their own personality, and that it is okay to be unique.

# data[].attributes.body
BASIC

I am still not completely sure why Vowell is so obsessed with presidents, and what made her write this book. This still all boils down to the fact that I don't understand the purpose of the novel. I don't get why she felt the need to publish this book, when hardly anyone can relate to it.

# 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." (pg. 190)

RANT

This quote and situation she describes weirds me out a little bit, and maybe it's just because I can't relate to it, but the kid seems a little odd. Although Vowell is the same way, it just seems a little creepy to me.

# data[].attributes.body
"Looking through the glass at the silent rotunda, I find it hard to picture it as it must have looked on the night of Garfield's ball: decorated with flags and bunting, 7000 people lit by the glow of 3000 gaslights."  (pg. 158)

RHETORIC

The imagery of this sentence and the sentences following really help the reader get into Vowell's shoes. Without her imagery, it would be really hard to understand what everything looks like, and through that we can understand the story better. I think it helps the reader feel more involved in the text.

# data[].attributes.body
"The week before I went to Oneida I have that claustrophobic dream again, that I had to move back in with a girl who claimed to enjoy baking and always promised tomorrow was going to be muffin day even though tomorrow was never muffin day-it was muffin day maybe once." (Pg. 150)

REFLECTION

I relate to this quote because I have been in situations similar to hers, where I have recurring dreams, that normally happen due to stress. I also relate to her roommate situation because I have friends that constantly make plans, or say they want to do something, then never follow through.

# data[].attributes.body
"The Oneida community was an upstate tourist attraction right from the start, second, Valesky says, to Niagara Falls. I'm taking the same guided tour offered 150 years ago to prim rubbernecks who came here to peep at sex fiends. I wonder how many of my vacationing forebears went home disappointed?" (Pg. 139)

EVALUATION

I enjoy this quote because I find it humorous. I like that Vowell is very straight forward, and can easily make a gross thing funny using her wit. She continues to surprise me, some good, and other bad.

# data[].attributes.body
RANT

The fact that I feel like I'm reading a history book is bothering me. The only thing keeping me interested is the sudden humor she adds here and there, but mostly it is pretty boring. I'm not even against learning about history or anything, but I don't really find early American history that interesting.

# data[].attributes.body
"Please. I actually giggle when he tries to steel me for seeing the re-created 1920s embalming room as if I'm not wearing the Bella Lugosi hair clips; as if I didn't just buy a book for my nephew called Frankenstein and Dracula are friends; as if I was never nicknamed Wednesday as in Addams; as if in eighth grade English class assigned to act out a scene from a biography when I get the girls had chosen Queen Elizabeth or Anne Frank, I hadn't picked al Capone and stage the St. Valentine's Day massacre with toy machine guns and wadded up red construction paper thrown everywhere to signify blood." (Pg. 108)

INTERPRETATION

This quote really brings out Vowell's personality. She continues to  show her writing style and thought process. By giving a look into her childhood, it helps the reader understand why she is the way she is and that she has always been that way.

# data[].attributes.body
BASIC

I really just don't think I understand what Vowell was trying to accomplish with this book and what made her want to go on the pilgrimage in the first place. I don't understand her obsession with history and death and I wish she would go into more depth about it.

# data[].attributes.body
"Witnessing the physical evidence of what Garfield went through, what his wife and children endured day after day, the fact that this man shriveled to the grave all because American voters picked him to be president, well, it seems tacky that we forgot him" (pg. 125)

REFLECTION

This was a very good quote to me, because it reminds me of how people don't appreciate what others do for them. Nowadays students don't learn enough about history, and this book has taught me a lot more than I expected. It reminds me that there is a lot of history that I don't know, and it seems almost arrogant to not be aware of the great things people in the past have done for us.

# data[].attributes.body
" but back to his death. It is the story of a self-made man's collision course with two of the most self-serving, self-centered, self-absorbed egomaniacs of the late 19th century..." (pg. 125)

EVALUATION

Vowell proves through this quote that she is very opinionated, and tells it like it is, unafraid of other people's opinions. I respect her bravery and knowledge, but she also didn't know the people, so it seems hard to judge.

# data[].attributes.body
" Lincolns tomb in Springfield Oakridge cemetery is a towering white Obelisk plopped on top of a crypt of marble corridors decorated with bronze tablet of his best love speeches and reproductions of the greatest hits of Lincoln sanctuary..." (pg.106)

RHETORIC

This quote is very well written and uses bigger words. Unlike some of her other writing, she is using complete thoughts, rather than jumping around constantly, with witty, sarcastic humor.

# data[].attributes.body
BASIC

Honestly I still don’t get the purpose. Even after reading more and more, it’s still just very unclear to me. Seeing as this book is about her pilgrimage, and the sarcasm and rants she uses, it makes it seem like she is trying to entertain readers. But, at the same time, she also brings up major topics of discussion, and things that are very controversial, and then just drops it. I don’t really understand her style of writing, because it gets so hard to read, which is why I also think that it’s harder to interpret her purpose. Does she even have one?

# data[].attributes.body
“That I think is a way we ought to look at the collections and not just think of it all and spooky and weird. It has nothing to do with spooky and weird.” (pg. 94)

INTERPRETATION

This quote helps the reader understand Vowell’s reasoning behind why she is so interested in death. She explains that it is not weird or about death, but it’s about a celebration of life. This makes her pilgrimage more understandable, because most people can’t relate to her content otherwise.

# data[].attributes.body
“LIke some teenage heavy metal fan worming his way backstage at a Metallica concert, Booth the John Brown fan charmed himself into the Grays’ company, bought a uniform, all so he could see his hero breathe his last.” (pg. 82)

REFLECTION

This reminds me of many people today, including myself. Many people obsess over celebrities, and are willing to do anything for them. When I was younger, I was the same way about One Direction (yikes). Although I wouldn’t never go to that extreme, and I wasn’t invested in them for the wrong reasons, I was a very big fan, so I understand his obsession.

# data[].attributes.body
“It pains me that, like Reagan, faced with the profundity of death my first conscious impulse was to act like a smart-alecky partisan jackass.” (pg. 84)

EVALUATION

The way Vowell wrote this quote sound sounds very intelligent, and honestly I don’t really understand it. I think her writing fluctuates too often between joking and sounding too sarcastic, and sounding very smart. It’s hard to keep up with her.

# data[].attributes.body
“I’m on their mailing list, and the most impressive, lovable thing about them is their rage.” (pg. 85)

RHETORIC

The irony of this quote is really funny to me because it pushes her thoughts along. It keeps making it obvious that she is a little twisted, and doesn’t have the same mindset as everyone else. She keeps making it clearer that her obsession is a little weird, and it helps the reader understand.

# data[].attributes.body
RANT

The fact that I do not know the purpose of the novel, and that Vowell is constantly going off on random tangents is starting to bother me. It's hard to read the book without wondering what she is writing it for. She dedicated it to her grandfather, who she said enjoyed history as much as she did, so could it be to keep his spirit alive through entertaining and teaching readers about history? Or is there a much larger purpose? She is not very clear in her writing, which irritates me. She is too jumpy and sparratic.

# data[].attributes.body
BASIC

I am still very confused about Vowell's purpose behind the text. Sometimes it seems like she's just writing for her own entertainment but other times it seems like she is hinting at a bigger problem, like racism, dark history, or things America tends to overlook. It is very unclear what her motives are.

# data[].attributes.body
"Once Owen learned to walk, we started playing a game I called Frankenstein, in which I am Frankenstein's mother and I chased him around trying to harvest his organs."

REFLECTION

Although this isn't the typical game of tag, this reminds me of when I would play tag with my siblings when we were kids. Vowell's take on it matches her personality completely, although it is a little weird.

# data[].attributes.body
"Technically, it's a family restaurant, but it will only remind you of your family if your mom chain-smoked menthols." (pg. 55)

RHETORIC

This quote shows Vowell's very ironic personality. I believe she uses it to entertain the reader, because honestly, the book, without humor, is just about history. It would basically be like reading out of a textbook. Vowell uses it to make the content more enjoyable, keeping readers interested.

# data[].attributes.body
“ Mike goes on to mention that the civilian family in charge of keeping the lighthouse complained they wouldn’t get any sleep at night because of the screams.” (pg. 73”

EVALUATION

The issue i’m starting to have with Vowell’s writing is that she describes all these situations she gets into and the things she learns, but then changes topics. She never gives her opinion on what she sees or learns. I would like to know exactly how she feels about things, in order to know how she stands on political and moral topics.

# data[].attributes.body
“ and when one visits Andrew Jackson’s house in Nashville, one is more likely to hear about the painstaking restoration of the wallpaper and nothing much about how Jackson‘s policies sent one’s Cherokee ancestors to the Trail of Tears.” (pg. 54)

RAVE

I really enjoy this quote because Vowell is not afraid to tell it like it is. This quote sheds light on the dark history behind our country, and the fact that everyone just ignores the horrible things our ancestors have done, and the things we as a society continue to do. It really puts the reader into perspective.

# data[].attributes.body
"... but if you are the Arabic speaking cab driver who drives are there, and you are ordered to get out of the car, to open the hood, sweat starts to spurt of your forehead as if your turban is wound out of a garden hose just got turned on.” (pg.49)

INTERPRETATION

This quote seems as though Vowell was almost trying to subtly hint at the racism and troubles we have in today’s society. She describes herself as a “meek little white woman” who gets through security easily, but shows that her Arabic cab driver was questioned and became very scared. This is a problem in America, due to racism, and racial profiling.

# data[].attributes.body
"Mart Surratt's D.C. boarding house, where John Wilkes Booth gathered his co-conspirators to plot Lincoln's death, is now a Chinese restaurant called Wok and Roll." (pg. 28)

INTERPRETATION

This quote seems like Vowell is subtly trying to show the reader how history is almost being set aside, and becoming obsolete. Places of large historical significance are becoming restaurants, and the only thing proving their importance are small plaques that she had to squint to see. I think Vowell is trying to prove why her trip is so important.

# data[].attributes.body
“I am the black hole of breakfast, a silent void of gloom sucking the sunshine out of their neighborly New England day.” (pg. 2)

RHETORIC

Vowell uses sarcasm, and a metaphor to get her point across throughout this quote, and most of the beginning of the novel. It is clear that her style of writing is very sarcastic and witty, which can draw readers in and make the content more enjoyable. The metaphor of her comparing herself to a black hole in regards to the other cheerful guests, shows readers her writing style, and gives insight into the personality of the character.

# data[].attributes.body
"There is a lesson here for the terrorists of the world: if they really want to get ahead, they should put less energy into training illiterate ten-year-olds how to fire Kalashnikovs and start recruiting celebrities like George Clooney" (pg.29)

RANT/RAVE

I honestly love Vowell's style of writing, because unlike most authors, she's not afraid to tell it like it is. Her sarcasm and straight forward thoughts make the book more interesting, and throws in a little more drama.

# data[].attributes.body
"These are people who have the gall to believe they can fix us - us and our deficit, our fossil fuels, our racism, poverty, our potholes and public schools. The egomania required to be president or a presidential assassin makes the two types brothers of sorts." (pg. 7)

REFLECTION

This quote makes me think of Donald Trump. Honestly, i can not stand the guy, and I often wonder why he chose to run for president, other than to boost his ego. The fact that presidents believe, or say to believe, that they can change or at least slow the pace of our country's rapidly diminishing well being, bothers me, seeing as nothing ever really changes for the better.

# data[].attributes.body
BASIC

I am confused as to what the author’s purpose is/will be. The novel is about her obsession with the assassination of presidents, from what I’ve read so far, but I don’t see how there will be a purpose tied in, other than to entertain the reader.

# data[].attributes.body
“I’m dormant, dormant, quiet, quiet, old-guy loners build log cabins on the slopes of my silence, then, boom, it’s 1980. (pg. 4)

EVALUATION

I really enjoy the author’s style of writing because she is very witty, and her comparisons are entertaining. I feel like it might start to get old, but she is a talented writer, and shows that she knows how to word her thoughts well, and can easily make an uninteresting topic humorous.