Creative Travel Narrative about the Metropolitan Museum
Creative Travel Narrative
After spending a semester examining diverse examples of travel writing, past and present, it's finally time to try your hand at the genre. For this assignment, you are the narrator, and you get to decide how you want to tell your travel writing story. Use this opportunity to experiment with the form, trying out techniques you've enjoyed in our reading selections, and figuring out how to insert yourself into the narrative. You can use dialogue. You can incorporate historical context. You can talk about your internal growth, or you can focus exclusively on your surroundings. You can express negative impressions about a place; or you can describe in vivid details how deeply you love this place. You get to decide.
Your travel narrative should depict a real trip taken during the second half of this semester. I do not expect you to travel to a distant location; rather, I ask that you take a local excursion, indoor or outdoor, in which you notice the point of view, power dynamics, and observations that shape your perception of this outing. Then, experimenting with the travel writing form we’ve studied all semester, you should bring this narrative to life. In addition to the creative travel narrative, you will turn in an accompanying reflection essay in which you’ll discuss the choices you made in your travel narrative and situate your own work within the genre. You will not be graded based on your artistic prowess, but on your willingness to be creative and your ability to analyze your own writing choices, reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and draw links between your own writing and the genre at large.
Your travel narrative should be at least 4 double-spaced pages. If you do incorporate book or Internet sources, you should cite using MLA format and include a Works Cited page. If you only include conversations between yourself and others, no Works Cited page is needed. You should include a creative title (NOT "Creative Travel Narrative"), a heading with your name, my name, the course name, and the date, and page numbers.
Have fun :)
Reflection Essay
This essay is your opportunity to reflect on your Creative Travel Narrative. I'd like you to tell me a bit about how you completed this writing assignment, consider the choices you made when writing this narrative, and, based on those choices, tell me where you might see yourself in the greater travel writing genre. Some questions to consider when thinking about how you wrote your essay might include:
From your perspective, what is your creative travel narrative "about"? What is it intended to make the reader think about?
What point-of-view did you use in your essay? (For most of you it will be "I," but if you write a Kincaid-style narrative, you might use "you.")
Did you choose to incorporate book or Internet sources into your essay? If so, what purpose did they serve?
What tense did you write your narrative in? (You might choose present or past tense.)
What kind of imagery did you use in your narrative? What are some examples?
Did you use dialogue? If so, what effect do you feel that had on your piece?
What about figurative language - similes, metaphors?
How did your use of imagery, dialogue, figurative language, POV, etc., contribute to the mood or tone of your piece?
On the basis of this reflection, please be sure to include your thoughts about which travel writers you might compare yourself to, and which you feel dissimilar to in writing style, subject matter, etc.
I also want to know how you chose the location you wrote about, what kind of preliminary work you did before writing your narrative, and what you feel your successes and challenges were with this essay.
Your reflection should be 4 full double-spaced pages, and should come directly after your Creative Travel Narrative in the same document.
NOTE: Because this assignment is due after our last day of class, there is no leeway for plagiarism on the assignment. You will not have an opportunity to "try again" if a plagiarism problem arises. Please visit the Writing Center if you have ANY concerns about plagiarism regarding your paper.
Course Title and Number
Instructor’s Name
Date
Creative Travel Writing
Metropolitan Museum
Wednesday 1st of December, at around 7 am, I arrived in New York City and took a cab to my hotel. The weather was great, an aspect that made me more eager for the activities in store for that day. My friends and close associates who had visited the Metropolitan Museum spoke of it fondly in the past. Consequently, I was curious about what this museum held and why it was so prominent among close associates. In 2 hours, I organized my schedule and completed my primary preparation. I was waiting for my tour guide, one of my friends in New York City, to arrive so that we could set off to the museum.
"Did you know that Metropolitan Museum is the largest in America and the entire western hemisphere?" my guide asked me. Although I already knew that this museum was huge, I did not know that it was the largest in the western hemisphere. I could help gazing at the busy streets of New York City as we drove to the museum- people walking in all directions like determined migratory beasts, vehicles speeding through smooth and wide roads of the city, and huge buildings demonstrating the masterpieces of American architecture. After a thirty minutes drive, we finally arrived at our destination. "Here we are, my friend. Over two million works of art are waiting to be viewed and appreciated by you. So where do we start?" prompted my tour guide. Looking and the massive structure housing the museum, with many people walking in all directions, I finally understood how big the Museum is. I could not help but notice the fountains near the entrance, which enriched the scene from the outside. As I walked into the Museum, I was not sure of what to expect, but I was ready for a big day. We took our maps to the entrance and had to decide which galleries we should start with.
I have been curious about Egyptian history and architecture; thus, I recommend we should start with gallery 131. Walking through the halls of the Museum, it was not to appreciate beautiful arts-paintings, statues, and sculptures. My first impression of the Temple of Dandur, which is located in gallery 131, was mainly informed by Egyptian stories and myths. "can you believe this temple was built more than 2000 years ago along the banks of River Nile. It was disassembled and given to the US after its original site was flooded, prompting the museum to customize this gallery just to accommodate it," said my tour guide. This explains the little body of water close to the temple, which represents the Nile. Although the temple is old, it still maintains most of the carvings and images inscribed on the walls. "Egyptian temples are mostly identified with cult images, but they hold various symbolic aspect that highlights the classical customs of ancient Egypt," said the tour guide. One of the most outstanding aspects of the temple is the carvings of papyrus and lotus plants, which appear to grow on water. It observes the concepts of sky and earth, with two columns on the porch rising to the sky. Among the features representing the sky include the images of sun disks and vultures, with their wings outspread. Offering and rituals are important in any society, and Egypt is no exception. The interior wall of the first room of the temp depicts a "pharaoh" making rituals to the deities. While I associated the temple with Egyptian cults, this representation changed my perception and understanding of classical Egyptian customs.
The next stop was in gallery 162, which is dedicated to the Greek and Roman sculptures and statues. Being in this gallery is like traveling back in time to the ancient Greek and Roman. Although some of the sculptures are broken with some pieces missing, the effort and talent manifested in these works are undoubtedly magnificent. The Roman and Greek arts represent important details of their respective classical customs. “These here is garland sarcophagus. Before the second century, Romans preferred to cremate their dead, but this trend was replaced by inhumation during the second century. Sarcophagi were used in the tombs, representing the status of the deceased,” explained the guide. Having spent most of my time standing, sitting on the bench close to the fountain in this gallery was relaxing (Grierson et al.). The bench is also close to the statues of Three Garces and embodiments of beauty. The statues and sculptures must have been placed in ancient Greek and Roman gardens to evoke delight and comfort, a similar effect they had in this gallery. Other than the sound of steps and murmuring from other visitors in the gallery, sitting here felt like floating in the air and a sense of ultimate peace.
“Do you know this museum holds about 14 percent of the surviving Vermeer paintings?” said the tour guide as we walked into gallery 632, containing the Vermeer collection. The gallery holds five of the 36 worlds surviving Vermeer paintings, which explains the dense population of visitors and viewers (Liedtke et al. 102). Unlike the previous galleries, the human traffic in and out of this gallery is low. People spend most of their time closely studying the paintings like doctors making observations on their microscope. I found the painting of the "woman with a water jug" to be the most intriguing. This oil on canvas painting depicts a woman opening a window with her right hand, as the left one holds a water jug. The jug is placed on a large plater, which rests on a table covered with a red rug of Asian origin. The most outstanding aspect of this painting is the emphasis and understanding of light manifested by the painter. The light from the window provides the perspective of different colors, the Woman's blue dress, the decorated red rug on the table, and the golden yellow color of the platter and the water jug. This painting is evidence of Vermeer's mastery in painting and explains his global reputation.
The museum offers endless options and artworks, which keep the eyes busy throughout the visit. The halls are decorated with paintings and statues, which are not only intriguing but also likely to distract mission-driven visitors. “Do you mind if we take a break on the rooftop and continue to other galleries?” asked the tour guide as we walked towards the elevator. The rooftop of this massive structure provides an outstanding aerial view of the central park and the New York Cityscape. The cool breeze, the details resulting from the contrasting...