Response to autobiographical essays

I found it interesting that the only essay in which the author's initial feelings and emotions were fundamentally altered later in life was in "Surviving the Mustard Lid Day's." In this article, the author was upset over her abandoned mother and deceased father, struggling to find her way in the world while constantly arguing with her grandparents, who were raising her. She was always at odds with grandparents. Later, she came to understand the impact her grandparents had on her development. They nurtured her, raised her, and attempted to motive her, often in vain, to become a happy person. The moral of the story was that her grandparents made her who she is today and she would not be the person she is today without their encouragement and support. Enormously different perspective from her initial feelings and emotions.

In the remaining three articles there was not this dramatic modification in feeling or emotion. For example, in "A Few Words About Breasts," the author during and after adolescence still pitied her lack of breast size. The author in "The Androgynous Male," felt androgyny was a great attribute at the beginning, middle, and end of his article. And in "Minivan Motoring," the author always felt that "freedom" from riding old-school and run-down automobiles, like his minivan he was describing at the beginning of the article. There was no change from previous perception.

I feel that in an autobiographical narrative, this unpredictable thesis/revelation makes for great writing. In most cases, as a reader, I expected some sort of transformation from the author, and in most cases, I didn't get it. Whether the author later changes his initial perceptions or not, the element of surprise is still there as long as the writer does not make the revelation/conclusion obvious to the reader, as the authors in "A Few Words About Breasts," and "Minivan Motoring" did.