Question by TIFFANYTIFFANYTIFFANY!: How to write a compelling opening paragraph?
On this quote from Invisible Man, “I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids–and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simple because people refuse to see me.”
The prompt is to argue for or against the statement, using specific examples from the text, as well as from your personal experiences to support your argument. And to not use “I” within the essay.
Thus my 2nd question, how do you write about personal experience without using “I”?!?!
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
I would perhaps start with a story, a personal example. Ex: “A girl stands in doorway of her living room, face brilliant red from tears. She’s covered in mud and bleeding from one hand. Her mother looks at her and says hello, but somehow misses the condition the girl is in because the mother isn’t truly seeing her.” That also shows how you can take a personal experience and take the word “I” out of it. If you want to get technical, you’d take the story out of first person and put it into third person. Hope this helps a little bit, even with the random weirdness that was my example.