In The Word Kitchen

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The most influential and effective writers are the writers who take their time and discus the best way to write their novel or short story. Writing is a very challenging. A lot of thought and planning goes behind making a story flow. For certain writings you have to change your style so that it fits better than another style. In Gates’ essay “In the Kitchen” he discusses what the word kitchen means to him. He discusses how history has a certain standard of what good and bad hair looks like. Gates discusses his struggle with fitting in and having a natural look. Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s essay “In the Kitchen” is the most efficient essay of the assigned eight readings because of three main elements: double meaning, imagery and clarity.…show more content…
For example on page one hundred and seventy-one he says, “Now, the kitchen was the room in which we were sitting- the room where Mama did hair and washed clothes, and where we all took a bath in that galvanized tub. But the word has another meaning, and the kitchen that I’m speaking of is the very kinky bit of hair at the back of your head, where your neck meets your shirt collar.” Gates starts his story talking about how the kitchen is a setting where his mom earned her living. She was a hairdresser, the physical place where she did most of her household chores. But a couple paragraphs in he explains that the essay is not about the setting of a kitchen but it is about the patch of hair you have on your neck. I think by starting the story off talking about the place it helps you get more intrigued and as you read and it switches to the hair patch you are drawn in more. This double meaning kills two birds with one stone and I think it helps allude into the real

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