Imitation Practice: Model 4

Imitation Practice: Model 4

Passage 4, “When some years ago I read a piece of Ernest Hemingway called Now I Lay Me, I thought there was nothing further to be said about insomnia.  I see now that that was because I had never had much; it appears that every man’s insomnia is as different from his neighbor’s as are their daytime hopes and aspirations.”

By F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Sleeping and Waking”

Imitation:

A few years ago I met a boy who never capitalized “i,” and I thought that there was something to be said about it.  I have since forgotten his name; but the idea has stuck with me when some days I don’t like the bold declaration of being a single being but only one letter.

Imitation:

When I used to sit in primary and read, “honor thy father and mother,” I never read that silent refrain that goes with it.  Here in Ghana they say that “respect is reciprocal;” and not surprisingly those five words are about as vague as their tangled interpretations and commentaries. 


Imitation:

When I used to read the Larium warning label about hallucinations and “bizarre behavior,” I was a little skeptical.  I realize now that that was no joke;  Yesterday I saw thick blankets of snow slipping behind the window in the ninety degree air.  As far as my “bizarreness,” if you aren’t convinced, just ask my group.

Substituting Metaphors:

After reading Ernest Hemingway’s Now I Lay Me, I was sure there was nothing to be said about insomnia.  I see now that that was because I had never had much; from man to man it is apples and oranges. 

Abbreviation:

I thought Now I Lay Me said everything about insomnia until I had it.  It is just as different as our daytime aspirations. 

Abbreviation:

Now I Lay Me was satisfactory on the subject of insomnia until I caught my personal brand of it.

Exclamation:

Insomnia!  Couldn’t you have stuck to one type?  Died with Hemingway or gallivanted off to Europe with him?  I thought that there was no more to be said of it. 

Inversion of Parts:

Insomnia is as different for a man as his daytime hopes and aspirations.  I know that now, having more of it.  Ernest Hemingway in Now I Lay Me was onto something, but there is much more to be said about it.

Inversion of Parts:

As different as man’s daytime hopes and aspirations comes his insomnia.  I didn’t know that because I had never had much.  There is more to be said about it, much more than when I read a piece of Ernest Hemingway called Now I Lay Me.

Understatement:

Ernest Hemingway’s piece, Now I Lay Me didn’t get it right.  Maybe I would have known if I had had more of it.  I guess it is as similar person to person as our identical daytime ambitions. 

    I liked this passage.  It was short, but I felt like it was more flexible to put my own ideas into it without just copying the content.  The sentences are not meandering or easy to get lost in.  They are straight to the point and not difficult to follow.  It was a lot easier to apply some of the other imitation techniques that are offered in the writing packet.