TOW # 6 "You Owe Me" (Essay)

In this essay, You Owe Me, Miah Arnold tells her story about teaching English to the dying patients at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Miah Arnold holds a Ph.D in writing and literature from the University of Houston, as well as teaches both children and adults alike throughout Houston. In her essay, Arnold discusses some of the terminally ill students she works with. Her target audience is parents and caretakers who must suffer the horrible fait of losing their child. Keeping in mind her audience, Miah Arnold’s purpose is to provide comfort for those parents and caretakers who do have to suffer the death of their kids. Trying to achieve this, Arnold uses characterization of some of her students. “Whatever it was he saw endowed him with an overwhelming generosity of spirit and the most intense humanity I had ever witnessed” (Arnold 30). This description is of Gio, one of her students, who was given only two months to live and after he received this news his entire personality changed, but not in a bad way. He did not mope around or break things or scream at people, he became kind. She uses this to show that death does not have to be sad or scary. If it was not either for Gio why should it be for his parents? Another rhetorical device Arnold uses is anecdotes. She explains in one section of her essay about a time when one of her students’ mothers came up to her after a class and said, “I just stood outside the door and listened to Umberto laughing...” (33). This anecdote serves her purpose because it reveals a deeper meaning for her essay. Not only does this show that parents can still find some joy watching their children at the end of their very short life, but also that that child can enjoy it as well. I believe that Miah Arnold achieves her purpose very well. I became very sad yet joyous when reading this, which I believe is the feeling Arnold was trying to bring forth from her readers.