Essays?

I was pleasantly surprised when I began reading the essays to find that they were more personal and less analytical in nature than I had expected. As I'm sure is the case with most of us in this class, I had a lot of experience reading and critiquing examples of many types of essays, both scholarly and non through previous English classes. I found these essays generally longer in length than what I had become accustomed to and hence, they seemed to smear across the boarder of essay and short story. "The Stunt Pilot" appeared to merge components of both genres of writing the most to me because of the clear story plot. However, there was also a clear point to the essay; to cause people to appreciate the art form of piloting through demonstrating it verbally. As a result of the attempted demonstration the essay was very descriptive, hence building anticipation to the take off and producing a very emotionally stimulating piece of work. In contrast I found myself struggling to grasp the point of "Ali in Havana". The essay was very descriptive in nature, but rather than describing an event, as was done in "The Stunt Pilot", people, their personalities, quirks, and physical attributes, were the primary focus of descriptive details. This style of writing remanded me of "Connie and the Sandman Ladies". I haven't been able to determine how similar my essay will be in nature to these examples because of the elemental difference in topics, but they have at least gotten me thinking in essay mode.