Unpeeling São Paulo's mask -Ana Canelas
The days I've spent wandering through São Paulo have shown me the potential for greatness and how a beautiful city can turn destitute in the wrong hands.
I see how lively the culture is and how bubbly the people are. It's like the amiable feeling of stepping into a party surrounded by friends and familiar faces.
I walk through Paulista Avenue almost every day. The sidewalk stands filled with jewelry and art keep my travels entertaining. And while the smell of fresh popcorn and the sound of street musicians beckon me like sirens the movement of the crowd encourages me to move forward.
Yet I still notice that it's a mask. It's a mask that covers the favelas, and the crimes, and the abandonment of good people. The mask hid much that I uncovered while living here.
Now all I can hope for is that one day it'll be okay.
I think the writer captured their version of the Lahore writer's tone very well, you can feel their sorrowful and nostalgic emotion towards the town. The visualization is clear, my senses have been/are stimulated through this writing. The paragraph about what is being seen only being a mask, says a lot about their feelings of the town and how it fell to what it is now. The only area I see for improvement would be to describe the sensations of the town even further, what the air of the town feels like. However, again, the emotion was very clear.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this is a perfect piece of writing. At first, I thought the city was going to be described as wonderful but the shift in tone really caught me of guard. The voice of the writer was perfect in my opinion. The inclusion of all the senses and street descriptions made me feel like I was truly there. The inclusion of an overarching desire left me feeling hopeful along with the writer that Sao Paulo will someday be rid of its imperfections.
ReplyDeleteThe writer captures the authors voice by using nostalgic writing. The great use of the idea of being behind a mask brings a sorrow feeling to the writer.
ReplyDeleteThe writer is extremally talented at catching the audiences attention and keeping them interested throughout the whole passage.
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