Controversial Skateboarding Essay Example

“writing or speaking that uses metaphor, simile, irony, sarcasm, personification, or other techniques to create a specific response.” Johnston shows examples of these throughout his text. He does so by setting the scenery using a past tense as he tells a story in the way he remembers it be. In other words, it is told as a flashback. He uses italicize to name Letters to Zerky: A Father’s Legacy to a Lost Son… and a Road Trip Around the World, to emphasize signs that were used to promote the novel. He then gives a descriptive image of the signs being close by the location of the Nude Bowl. In addition to the descriptions of figurative language, he uses sarcasm to exaggerate a joking tone when he says he “borrowed” every towel from his hotel room. It allows the reader to decide whether to believe or disbelieve, the assumption of Johnston taking in action of stealing towels from his visitations of hotel rooms.

Johnston also uses detail actions and quotations of the effect the Nude Pool had on the community. Fifteen years after the locals berried the pool, they dug it back up and discovered that the walls of the pool had not been demolished. In comparison, the article “Lost and Found: The Nude Bowl”, by Jonathan Labez feels the same way as Johnston. Labez states that “Each time the Nude Bowl has been buried, the skate gods have called upon a new generation of skaters to seek it out, unearth the pool, and re-ignite its tradition of unfiltered fun, shredding at its purest form.” Johnston and Labez both provide photos of the emptied, Nude Bowl. Finding

the pool meant they could still ride their skateboards. That is when Johnston flew out as soon as he could. The writer quotes a punk band’s words that reflect the description towards the pool was demolished. He express his views of the pools surroundings by using the terms “vertigo-inducing” landscapes. Johnston’s tone changed from a more formal tone to a more inspirational tone.

He also uses a vocabulary that emphasizes the grammar the people involved in the community use. Johnston uses terminology that certain people would know the meaning. For example, “colossal kegger”, mostly party goers would know the meaning unlike those that are not around keg parties. There are websites that give a few terminologies and their definition that skaters would know the meaning of. For example, the website www.skatetolive.com, has the word “Poser - someone who poses as a skateboarder, or anyone who tries to be something they're not.” When Johnston said, “Skateboarding was still young”, he was using a metaphor that refers to skateboarding had just started not too long ago. He tends to use metaphors to exaggerate the labor the men had to go through to dig up the Nude Bowl. Johnston gives a detailed explanation on how to ride a skateboard in an empty pool by relating the ride to a “J” shape. The introduction sentence starts the expository by starting the time line from the 60’s to late 70’s. He explains the location or setting of the expository taking place in the Desert Hot Springs, California. Outside of Los Angeles.