Connie Lenart

September 1, 2014

             My personal reaction to the essay “Embedded” was easy for me to relate to. About five years ago my grandmother fell and broke her hip and ended up in a nursing home for rehabilitation. She eventually was released tried going home with help but, that didn’t work out well. She then went into an assisted living, however that wasn’t the answer either. She needed more care although she didn’t really get more care just more medication to keep her quiet and restraints and alarms. She eventually died a few years later in the nursing home. It was somewhat of a relief when she passed knowing she wasn’t in a place she hated.

               The author’s description of the nursing home during his rehabilitation session was so vivid and clear to me. From the smells and sounds the medicated patients and the cries for help. I also, saw the neglected patients restrained in wheel chairs in the hallways for hours at a time.  The essay made me so sad to think how many patient are living this life. To hear the author explain being the patient who is a highly intelligent man with a body that doesn’t work correctly. The humiliation he went through as a patient. I also believe the employees are over worked and the facilities understaffed. It is a huge problem in our society when it comes to nursing home care. I wish there was a simple solution to fix the problem.

                I enjoyed reading chapter five.  I love cooking so the introduction describing the food caught my attention. There is a lot of informative information in this chapter that was easy to understand. I learned the difference between expressive details and objective details. It was very interesting the paragraph on dominant impression and how not to go overboard with all the different detail. The sensory details are somewhat self-explanatory, but very important to include. This is huge for the author to get the point across with great description so the audience or reader can connect. Also, when revising I loved the examples instead of saying “the child is tired” it is important to explain the details of the child such as, rubbing their eyes or yawning.