“Behind The Sugar Curtain” begins with two cousins reuniting. The writer goes to visit their cousin and learn more about his profession. Throughout the essay we will look at the information provided by the author, his stance of the topic, the overall focus, and ideas for upcoming projects. Out of all the essays I read through, I feel as though, this one shared the most information in the most interesting way. The writer provides us with a first look into the world of beet picking, through their experience practicing it. The writer asks basic questions to help us understand, and provides very descriptive information about the machines. She shows helps us understand this process through what she sees and dialogue between her and her cousin. In this essay the author is a “participant observer”. She is taking part in the process of beet picking, and speaking throughout the essay. She opens the essay with this line, “Ten-thirty on a Friday night I pulled into my cousin Blaine’s farmyard”. This already shows us that the author will be participating in the story. The second example is, “I turn and watch the beet lifter inch its way across the field”. This describes what the author is seeing, and provides us with a better understanding of the process. The reason this stance works, is because it is showing us exactly what is going on …show more content…
It starts out by the author explaining her cousins houses, “Dishes are piled high in he sink”. This helps us understand that the job is taking up a lot free time. Then the author makes the remark “I thought this was for twelve hours, not twelve days”. This helps us understand how time consuming the job is. “Do you think you can handle an all-nighter?”, also shows us how long the shifts are. Finally, “we have been carrying 44,000 pounds of beets”, give us the understanding of how much they have done in just their couple of hours into the