Blog 5

In the narrative essay, "Your Friend/My Friend, Ted" (2017), Beth Johnson explores different theories that could have led her friend to his suicide. In her writing, Johnson leads by painting a vivid picture of Ted's friend pleasant childhood, his childhood friendships, and his seemingly happy life as a father and husband. The author immediately follows this by digging deeper into his life's events in order to
remind her readers that people often show us the glamorous shots of their lives, but we never know what people truly experience. In our opinion, the intended audience of this work is not limited to one specific group of people, on the contrary, this essay is a reminder to all humanity to always have compassion for others because you never know what they are going through.


Something useful from the reading to consider in our writing includes how the author connected with her audience. Johnson writes in a way that keeps us in a state of suspension and intrigue to know what happens with the main character of the essay, the friend of Ted. The author motivated us to finish reading the whole story to know how the plot ends. It remained a great tip to incorporate into our writing because all authors want their work to be interesting enough for the readers. Something else we found worth following from the model is how the author refers to herself as a friend of the main character, even though she did not know him when he was alive. She does so by creating a sense of friendship and talking about him in the 2nd person. However, Beth keeps narrating about his personal life. The strategy Beth used showed us how to narrate so that the writer can show the audience what to believe.