Desert Dance - Teacher

66 Description / Sensing the Natural World
A NOTE ON THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
The writers represented in this chapter all set out to explore some-
thing in nature. They probably didn't decide consciously to write a
description, but turned to the method intuitively as they chose to
record the perceptions of their senses. In a paragraph, David Mura
cabtures the dense unpleasantness of a seemingly endless downpour
(p. 61). In another paragraph, Diane Ackerman describes the sharp,
lasting images of a sea of icebergs (p. 62). Marta K. Taylor's essay on
a nighttime car ride climaxes in a lightning storm (opposite). Larry
Woiwode's essay on &ranges depicts his childhood anticipation and
enjoyment of sweet, ripe fruit (p. 72). And Joan Didion's essay on a
wind io+,@g from the mountains above Los Angeb shows how an
air curre? can transform a city (p. 79).
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ON MEMORY
Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.
-Oscar Wilde
A childhood is what anyone wants to remember of it. -Carol Shields
1 might have seq more of America when I was a child if 1 hadn't had to
spend so much of my time protecting my half of the back seat from
incursiolzs by my sister. -Calvin Trillin
Journal Response Recall a childhood event such as a family outing, a long
car ride, a visit to an unfamiliar place, or an incident in your neighborhood.
Imagine yourself back in that earlier time and write down details of what
you experienced and how you felt.
Marta K. Taylor
Marta K. Taylor was born in 1970 and raised in Los Angeles. She attended a
"huge" public high school there before being accepted into Harvard Univer-
sity. She graduated from Harvard in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in chem-
istry and from Haward Medical School in 1998. She is now a resident
physician in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she specializes in head and
neck surgery.
Desert Dance
Taylor wrote this description of a nighttime ride when she was a freshman in col-
lege taking the required writing course. The essay was published in the 1988-89
edition of Exposi, a collection of student writing published by Harvard.
We didn't know there was a rodeo in Flagstaff. All the hotels were 1
filled, except the really expensive ones, so we decided to push on to
Winslow that night. Dad must have thought we were all asleep, and
so we should have been, too, as it was after one A.M. and we had
been driving all day through the wicked California and Arizona
desert on the first day of our August Family Trip. The back seat of
our old station wagon was down, allowing two eleven-year-old kids
to lie almost fully extended and still leaving room for the rusty green

68 Description I Sensiqg the Natural World
Coleman ice-chest which held the packages of pressed turkey breast,
the white bread, and the pudding snack-pacs that Mom had cleverly
packed to save on lunch expenses and quiet the inevitable "Are we
there yet?" and "How much farther?"
Jon was sprawled out on his back, one arm up and one arm down,
rhinding me of Gumby or an outline chalked on the sidewalk in a
marder mystery. His mouth was wide open and his regular breath
rattled deeply in the back of his throat somewhere between his mouth
and his nose. Beside the vibration of. the wheels and the steady hum of
the engine, no other sound disturbed the sacred silence of the desert
night.
I lay, behind the driver's sear, next to my twin
the old green patchwork quilt that smelled like beaches
-salty and a little mildewed-I could see my mother's
n head slumped against the side window, her neck bent
against the seat belt, which seemed the only thing holding
her in her seat. Dad, of course, drove-a motionless, soundless, pro-
tective paragon of security and strength, making me feel totally safe.
The back of his head had never seemed more perfectly framed than
by the reflection of the dashboard lights on the windshield; the short,
raven-colored wiry hairs that I loved so much caught and played
with, like tinsel would, the greenish glow with red and orange ac-
cents. The desert sky was starless, clouded.
Every couple of minutes, a big rig would pass us going west. The
lights would illuminate my mother's profile for a moment and then the
roar of the truck would come and the sudden, the violent sucking rush
of air and we would be plunged into darkness again. Time passed so
slowly, unnoticeably, as if the whole concept of time were meaningless.
I was careful to make no sound, content to watch the rising and
falling of my twin's chest in the dim light and to feel on my cheek the
gentle heat of the engine rising up through the floorboards. I lay mo-
tionless for a long time before the low rumbling, a larger sound than
any eighteen-wheeler, rolled across the open plain. I lifted my head,
excited to catch a glimpse of the rain that I, as a child from Los Ange-
les, seldom saw. A few seconds later, the lightning sliced the night sky
all the way across the northern horizon. Like a rapidly growing twig,
at least three or four branches, it illuminated the twisted forms of
Joshua trees and low-growing cacti. All in silhouette-and only for a
flash, though the image stayed many moments before my mind's eye
ill the following black.
Taylor I Desert Dance 69
The lightning came again, this time only a formless flash, as if God
were taking a photograph of the magnificent desert, and the long,
straight road before us-empty and lonely-shone like a dagger. The
trees looked like old men to me now, made motionless by the natural
strobe, perhaps to resume their feeble hobble across the sands-once the
shield of night returned. The light show continued on the horizon
though the expected rain never came. The fleeting, gnarled fingers
grasped out and were gone; the fireworks flashed and frolicked and
faded over and over-danced and jumped, acting out a drama in the
quick, jerky movements of a marionette. Still in silence, still in darkness.
I watched the violent, gaudy display over the uninhabited, end-
less expanse, knowing I was in a state of grace and not knowing if 1
was dreaming but pretty sure I was awake because of the cramp in
my neck and the pain in my elbow from placing too much weight on
it for too long.
Meaning
1. What does Taylor mean by "state of grace" in paragraph 7? What associations
does this phrase have? To what extent does it capture the dominant
impression of this essay?
2. If you do not know the meaning of any of the words below, try to guess
it from its context in Taylor's essay. Test your guesses in a dictionary,
and then try to use each word in a sentence or two of your own.
paragon (3)
silhouette (5)
strobe (6)
gnarled (6)
frolicked (6)
Purpose and Audience
marionette (6)
gaudy (7)
1. Why does Taylor open with the sentence "We didn't linow there was a
rodeo in Flagstaff"? What purposes does the sentence serve?
2. Even readers familiar with the desert may not have had Taylor's experi-
ence of it in a nighttime lighming storm. Where does she seem especially
careful about describing what she saw? What details surprised you?
Method and Structure
1. What impression or mood is Taylor trying to capture in this essay? HOW
does the precise detail of the description help to convey that mood?
2. Taylor begins her description inside the car (paragraphs 1-5) and then
moves out into the landscape (5-7), bringing us back into the car in her

70 Description 1 Sensing the Natural World
final thought. Why does she use such a sequence? Why do you think she
devotes about equal space to each area?
3. Taylor's description is mainly subjective, invested with her emotions.
Point to elements of the description that reveal emotion.
4. Other Methods Taylor's description relies in part on narration (Chap-
*;: ter 5). How does narrative strengthen the essay's dominant impression?
'C
1. How does Taylor's tone help convey the "state of grace" she feels inside
the car? Point out three or four examples of language that establish that
o you think Taylor titles her essay "Desert Dance"?
the words Taylor uses to describe Joshua trees (paragraphs 5-6).
re already familiar with the tree, how accurate do you find
Taylor's description? If you've never seen a Joshua tree, what do you
think it looks like, based on Taylor's description? (Next time you're in
the library, look the tree up in an encyclopedia to test your impression.)
4. Taylor uses similes to make her description vivid'and immediate. Find
several examples, and comment on their effectiveness. (See p. 53 for
more on similes.)
5. Taylor's last paragraph is one long sentence. Does this long sentence
work with or against the content and mood of the paragraph? Why and
how?
Writing Topics
1. Journal to Essay Using subjective description, expand your journal
entry about a childhood event (p. 67) into an essay. Recalling details of
sight, sound, touch, smell, even taste, build a dominant impression for
readers of what the experience was like for you.
2. Taylor's essay illustrates her feelings not only about the desert but also
about her father, mother, and twin brother. Think of a situation when
you were intensely aware of your feelings about another person (friend
or relative). Describe the situation and the person in a way that conveys
those feelings.
3. Cultural Considerations Though she had evidently seen the desert be-
fore, Taylor had not seen it the way she describes it in "Desert,Dance."
Write an essay in which you describe your first encounter with some-
thing new-for instance, a visit to the home of a friend from a different
social or economic background, a visit to a big city or a farm, an unex-
1 Taylor/ Desert Dance 71
I
,
pected view of your own backyard. Describe what you saw and your responses.
How, it at all, did the experience change you?
4. Connections Both Taylor and Diane Ackerman (in the paragraph on
p. 62) experience awe at a natural wonder. In a brief essay, analyzs how
these writers convey their sense of awe so that it is concrete, not vague.
Focus on their words and especially on their figures of speech. (See
pp. 53-54 for more on figures of speech.)