Compare/Contrast Exercise - Ciera Yamarick

"First Love" by Gary Soto // "The Only Rule That Counts" by John Long

Between these 2 stories, they really used scene/imagery to put the reader in the exact state that they were in. You're able to really feel what happened and from that, you are able to capture the message the author is trying to get across. And within that point, they're both dealing with two complex subjects that are hard to explain with words: death/loss and love. To help explain, they gave anecdotes and experiences to have some understanding of the feelings you will undergo. The writers defined these messages through statement lines that set the story straight. From "First Love" Gary Soto writes, "To know you're in love you have to step outside, walk up the street, and be so alone, so flogged by your separation, that your mind will race your heart and almost win" (Soto). Then from "The Only Rule That Counts" by John Long, "He was betraying the only rule that counts -- to do what excites you" (Long).

These two stories are told from similar perspectives as well, with the speaker describing an experience in regards to another person. "First Love" was the speaker dealing with these new found feelings of love in a romantic relationship while "The Only Rule That Counts" is the speaker dealing with the tragic death of his friend through a letter that he wrote. These two stories were systematically written to deal with larger issues rather than writing a bike or climbing a mountain. These stories demanded feelings like the jitteriness and innocence when you're in a romantic relationship or the helplessness/regret with the death of a friend.