Narrative vs. Descriptive

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Narrative vs. Descriptive For this essay, I have chosen “Are the Rich Happy?” written by Stephen Leacock (1916) for the narrative essay and “Homeless” written by Anna Quindlen (n.d.) for the descriptive essay. As I started reading the narrative essay “Homeless” the introductory paragraph drew me in and made me want to read more. Quindlen opens her descriptive essay with “Her name was Ann, and we met in the Port Authority Bus Terminal several Januarys ago. I was doing a story on homeless people. She said I was wasting my time talking to her; she was just passing through, although she'd been passing through for more than two weeks. To prove to me that this was true, she rummaged through a tote bag and a manila envelope and finally unfolded a sheet of typing paper and brought out her photographs.” (paragraph 1). Whereas, Leacock’s narrative essay began with “Let me admit at the outset that I write this essay without adequate material. I have never known, I have never seen, any rich people. Very often I have thought that I had found them. But it turned out that it was not so. They were not rich at all. They were quite poor. They were hard up. They were pushed for money. They didn't know where to turn for ten thousand dollars.” (paragraph 1) and did not catch my attention or leaving me wanting to know more about the subject of his essay. Therefore, in this essay, I am going to compare/contrast the author’s purpose, the intended audience, and the impact on the reader’s that each author intended to accomplish through the essay that they wrote; I also plan to show that the descriptive essay communicates the author’s point of view more clearly to that of the narrative essay. In the narrative essay, Leacock (1916) used his narration to show in his own words and through his own experiences what rich people think are problems, that they do not consider themselves to be

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