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Garrison Hines
Ms. Hamby
ENGL 1101-019
10 September 2014
Joseph Hines and the ridiculous rhymes of Dr. Seuss
On the faraway Island of Sala-Ma-Sond, Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond read
the first lines of my favorite book, Yertle the turtle. Some of the ideology, throughout the Dr.
Seuss work fits with the concept of reading and writing. In the text, Yertle believed that the more
land he could see meant the more land that he could control, making him a more powerful ruler.
My reading experience to the story. I am Yertle, my education is my pond, and the books I read
is the turtles stacking underneath me. Throughout my life, I was told Knowledge is power. The
more you know the better you set yourself up for your future success. No matter what I wanted
to be in life, I believed that education was the key to the door. Yertle defined his power as how
much he could see, but to me power is having the sole attention of another mind. Throughout my
life, I have enjoyed reading and because of my passion to read, I found joy in writing as well.
From the moment you are born, you are in contact with the english language. Although
you can not process of understand, the newborns slowly absorbs words and begins to recognize
the meaning belonging to every word. So, my first contact with reading is probably a time that I
cannot remember. The first time I can remember reading, I was about 4 years old. Being the third
child of seven, I was easily influenced by my two older brothers. At the time, my oldest brother,
Greg, was eight and he started to believe that he was too old and sophisticated to hangout with
his younger brothers, but my older brother, Andre, was still fascinated with impressing my
younger brother, Jamil, and I. Throughout Andres time in the first grade, he was given a book to

read every week, to help improve his reading skills. He decided that he would help his little
brothers learn how to read, and he read to us as his first grade teacher read to him. The first book
I can remember him reading was Fox in Sox, by Dr. Seuss. Excited with the possibility of
making my older brother proud, I eagerly sat as he read the book to Jamil and I. Though he
struggled over many of the words in the book, I realized that reading gave my brother power
over me. Every since that day, I craved for the chance to have that same power over others.
Though I had a great experience first experience with reading, my first experience with
writing was very much different. A couple years after my initial experience with reading, I was
first introduced to writing. In the kindergarten, my teacher began to teach us how to write the
letters of the alphabet and shortly after how to write our names. I felt a step above my peers
because I could distinguish and say each letter of the alphabet better than many, but my success
was hampered by writing the letters. Because I was naturally left-handed I often wrote my letters
backwards, and I was often challenged by my teacher, Ms. Hood, to both write the letters
correctly and with my right hand. Writing with my right hand was very hard because it would
hurt, and it would often cramp because the undeveloped muscles were not use to the amount of
activity it takes to write. Therefore, I initially hated writing because I associated it with pain,
criticism, and a feeling of incompetence whenever I wanted to complete the task.
In that same Kindergarten class, I excelled as a reader. Though my school did not
officially start teaching kids how to read until the 1st grade, Ms. Hood would often finding me in
the book section during any free time we were awarded (e.g. recess, nap time etc.). Instead of
pushing me to go play with other students, or nap like the other students, She would pull me
aside and started to teach me how to read. It was not until April, 2001 when I would successfully
read my first book. With Ms. Hood closely reading over my shoulder, I read aloud my favorite

book Yertle the Turtle. As I sat and sounded out the oddly spelled rhyming words of Dr. Seuss, I
again fell in love with reading. Throughout the book, Yertle wanted to sit higher and higher
because he believed that the more he could see the more land he controlled. I felt the same way
about reading. I felt that the more I could read the more control I would have over my peers, and
teachers. While I was reading, I realized that I had the sole attention of Ms. Hood as I sat and
read the first couple pages of the book. I realized that through reading, one could capture the
attention of the ones who seemingly had more control and power over a certain situation.
It was almost four years later before I found this same truth with writing. As I eventually
built the writing muscles in my right hand, I also began to write my letters the correct way.
While I kept getting better with writing my name, and words alike, I began to form sentences,
paragraphs and stories. In the 4th grade, I was chosen to be in the advanced writing track at my
school. In this advanced writing course, I found myself creating multiple stories throughout the
year. One of the stories I remember writing was the story of King Jamero. This was arguably my
best work of the year, and the advanced writing teacher validated my assumption by hanging the
piece on the wall for everyone to see. While many of the lower elementary school students
walked past the advanced writing wall, they often stopped to read the works that hung proudly
on the cork pushpin board. When I saw people stopping to read my text, I had the same epiphany
that I had about reading years before. I now understood that I could capture the minds of many
by creating a world that they could place themselves into. I began to realize that writing had a
greater effect on people than reading. My new found love would not take the place of reading,
but work in conjunction to help me capture the most minds, thus giving me the most power.
To capture the attention of many, I realized that it was a combination of both reading and
writing that would allow one to achieve the highest amount of capture. It was not until I was a

senior in highschool to fully realize the true power of reading and writing in combination with
each other. In my global studies class, we read A life you can save by Peter Singer. In his book,
he outlined on a basic level that if all of the wealth in the world were divided more evenly than
what is defined as poverty now would not exist. While reading this book, I became more aware
of the power of reading. I learned that by reading a book, I could become more educated to
donate a small amount of money and change the life of many. By reading the book, I became
educated and was out in a position to change a life. But that same book made me realize that if I
wrote about what I learned and spread the message, than more and more people would have the
ability to change a life. I realized that when you read, you are capturing your own mind, but to
spreading a message one would need to write. This book, changed my perspective on writing. I
know appreciate writing more than reading.
Later that year, I had success with writing and capturing the minds of many. In my
History of the Middle East class, we looked closely at the Civil War in Syria. We often debated
how the United States should intervene in the situation. We were instructed to write a 4 page
proposal to the State Senator for him to propose in Congress, in the class it was my paper to be
chosen to be sent to Sen. Chris Coons. Though my paper did not make a huge national debate, it
had captured the attention of all of my classmates, and teachers. I felt like I was on top of the
world because of the amount of attention was placed on my piece of writing. The recognition
that I received for such a simple piece of writing, gave me the feeling of being on top of the
world. I felt that I had the same amount of change as Richard Wrights Native Son had on the
American Community. Writing has the ability to impact small communities and change the lives
of people.

Writing can impact a person for a lifetime. A piece of writing has the ability to reveal
different messages to different audiences. As a young child, I immediately became fascinated
with the ridiculous rhymes of Dr. Suess. Many of his books has made an impact on my life, but
the one that has made the biggest impact is Oh, the Places Youll Go. The book can be read to a
child or to an adult and still have a very significant meaning. As a small child the book taught me
that I could do anything I wanted to to strive to be the best. The books says, Youll join the high
fliers who soar to high heights. As a child, this was my favorite line because Dr. Suess was
telling me that I will be the best, I will always be at the top. Then came my high school
graduation, as a present from my college advisor, Mrs. Fritz, I recieved the book again. Full of
fear and excitement for what is what to come next as I transition from child to adult, I decided to
feel like a child and read the book again. Except the book did not make me feel like a child at all.
As I read the book again, I realized that Dr. Suess was telling me to not fear what is to come
next, and not to fear failure because in the end I will succeed. My favorite pages of the book
coincidentally comes right after my favorite page as a child. The text says, Except when you
dont because sometimes you wont. This has taught me that I may not succeed when I want,
but eventually I will prevail. The experience with the book has taught me that one could be
affected by a piece of writing for a long time, and that reading is the bridge that gets you there.
Overall, my literacy narrative starts in one place, trying to capture the minds of many and
transformed into trying to help as many people as possible. One day, I would like to help the
struggling youth in my hometown, Philadelphia, and throughout my life I have come to
understand that reading and writing will be the easiest way for me to perform this task. I will
need my writing skills to help propose ideas to help and shape, while I will need my reading
skills to keep an open mind, and to guide me to the best program to help those kids. Reading and

writing are very important to me because of the desire I have found because of reading and
writing. Without them, I do not feel that I would have discovered the passion for helping kids. It
was the silly, rhymes and sounds of Dr. Suess that helped me. So maybe, just maybe I can
someone like you.