What does it mean to be busy? Some people have different viewpoints on that word. After reading two different essays, I still cannot find the answer to that question. The first essay I read, which is, “Working At Wendy’s” by Joey Franklin, talks about his busy schedule and how he is busy because he needs to support his family. The second essay, “The Busy Trap” by Tim Kreider, talks about how being busy takes us away from the world negatively. In both essays, Franklin and Kreider have the same content; however the way they explain it, is what makes a difference.
The content of both essays can be looked at as the same. Both essays support themselves by being busy. Kreider states that “…I’ve insidiously started, because of professional obligations, to become to busy” (382). Kreider talks about how he is busy because of the amount of work that he has to do because of his professional obligations”.
In Joey Franklin’s essay, he talks about how busy he has been working at Wendy’s because he needs to support himself and his family.
The similarity between these two in terms of content would have to be, that they have a purpose of being busy. In each essay they talk about supporting themselves or supporting loved ones. Even though Kreider doesn’t like to be busy, it is something he has to go through in order to survive. The same would be said for Franklin. Franklin states, “Then I explain the job is temporary, and it’s the only job in town that allows me to work at night so I can watch myson during the day while my wife finishes school” (82).
Franklin has a purpose to his busy life, which is, that he needs to support his wife and his son.
Both essays are similar because of the information they are trying to say to the audience. Although ther content may be similar, the style of the essays would be totally different. By reading both essays, you can tell how each author wrote the essay. Tim Kreider’s style would be general because he talks about everyone. In his essay he says, “If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are” (380). This sentence explains that he is talking about everyone in America and it is not pointed at a specific person.
On the other hand, Joey Franklin has a different style of writing. He uses his personal life, so that others who are going through the same thing can relate to him. “After the store closes, I come home, take off my uniform, and climb into bed with my wife” (86). By reading that sentence, many people can already relate to him. Another difference would be the writing style. Joey Franklin wrote a narrative essay. He uses his personal life and tells a story. Tim Kreider uses expository and persuasive style of writing. He is trying to tell people that being too busy can be bad, but he also uses his life to tell the story. The style that the authors use when writing the essay can have a huge effect on how we view things. The theme of both essays may be easy to figure out, but how each author uses the theme may be difficult to understand. In my opinion both authors have two different themes. Tim Kreider’s theme in his essay is about how being busy is bad for Americans. Joey Franklin’s theme is about how being busy is good because it helps support his family.
Although they both talk about being busy, each author gives a different perspective on it. Kreider states that “Life is too short to be busy” (384). He talks about we put so much on ourselves to make us busy, that we forget about everything else around us. He is giving a negative opinion about being busy and saying that it causes us to forget the world. On the other hand, Joey Franklin views it differently. Obviously, his theme is about being busy, but how he describes it would be that we are busy in order to support our loved ones. In his essay he writes, “I tell him in another month I’ll be back in school and working at a better-paying, less humiliating campus job” (82). By what he says, you can tell he doesn’t like this job, but he has to stay in order to support his wife and his son. In order for his family to survive, he has to make the sacrifice to be busy, to make sure that his family is cared for. Even though the theme is the same, how they portray the theme is totally different.
In conclusion, both essays have the same content but how they portray their essay changes the understanding of the content. The content in both essays stays the same because each author talks about how they need to support themselves. In order to survive, they would need to take on the busy task to make sure they are stable. In contrast, the writing style is totally different. Each author tells the audience what being busy means to them. In my opinion, I think the style is different because they want the readers to see two different sides. Kreider talks in a general perspective, but Franklin ties it down to a specific group of people. To put it all together, the theme is portrayed differently. They both talk about being busy, but they see it as two different things; one negatively and one positively. Overall I think that comparing these two essays allows us readers to look at the overall subject differently. It causes us to breakdown each essay and do some critical thinking.
Works Cited
- Franklin, Joey. “Working at Wendy’s.” The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction, edited by Melissa A. Goldthwaite et al., shorter 14th ed., W.W. Norton, 2017, pp.29-35
- Kreider, Tim. “The Busy Trap.” The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction, edited by Melissa A. Goldthwaite et al., shorter 14th ed., W.W. Norton, 2017, pp.210-14
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
