ANALYSIS OF THE "FIVE FAMILIES" ESSAY

Remember that movie “The Sixth Sense”?

I won't ruin it for you, but I will tell you that there’s a moment toward the end when a crucial
piece of information is revealed that triggers in the mind of the audience a series of realizations
that have been leading up to this Big Revelation.

That’s kind of what this writer does: he buries a series of hints (one in each paragraph) that he
“explodes” in the final paragraph. In short:

1. He buries a series of essence images in his first paragraphs (one per family).
2. He doesn’t tell us what they mean until the end of the essay, when he writes “I learned
and was shaped by each of them.” Note that each essence image is actually a lesson--
something he learned from each family.
3. When he reveals each lesson at the end, one after the other, we sense how all these
seemingly random events are connected. We realize this writer has been carefully
constructing this piece all along; we see the underlying structure. And it’s a pretty neat
one.

https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/college-essay-examples#Burying+Grandma=