Outside Reading #1: Reflective essay 10.3.10

Reflective Essay

“Oh, brother, Glad You’re Still With Us” by Derek Alger.

Written on August 6^th. 2010

“Oh, brother, Glad You’re Still With Us” by Derek Alger is about how Alger’s brother was ran over by a van. Then it gives a detail about his brother’s life. After that, Alger explains how his brother hurt his leg and foot by a van.

In the beginning of the essay, Alger revealed that his mother said that whenever one of them was hurt, the injured one should call his brother and say “I’m okay” and then state what was wrong with him. When Alger came home from work, his brother called and said “I’m okay”, then saying that he was in the hospital. This seems to be flash-back. Since it reveals the past before the present event happens, thus making this story non-linear.

The tone of this essay seems to be emotional and personal. He created this tone by first mentioning his dead mom’s quote. Also, it gives details about how his brother was depressed for he would not be able to make enough livings to survive since he no longer could work.

Because of the tone, I have to say that I’m in favorable of this essay. It is personal and gives readers the feeling of emotional distressed person, thus giving sympathy to those. I can actually feel the pain of the author’s brother, who could no longer work because he was injured. I give my sympathy to him.

One of the strengths of this essay is diction. Alger uses some complex vocabulary. For example, he uses the word “he uses the word “envisioned” instead of predicted in the sentence “…he never envisioned what condition he would be in that night”, thus creating more vivid images than the word “predicted” will do. Also, His paragraphs consist of long sentences, thus creating a continuous flow to paragraphs. The only weakness that I found in this story was the lack of organizations. At first, the author talks about how he heard that his brother was injured. Then he stated that he remember quote of his friend, and then giving details to them. After that, the author told how his brother was injured, thus left me confused.
In the ending of the story, Alger states that he is just happy to be with his living brother. He does not predict what is going to happen next. Even though his leg and foot are injured, Alger’s brother states that since he can still drive, he is going back to his jobs within a week. Alger does not state whether his brother will succeed or not. Rather, he simply concludes the story with happiness of being with his brother. I think that Alger ended his story well.


This tone should not be appropriate for an AP essay since this piece is too personal and emotional. Essay can be personal and emotional, but not too much.