A Few Kind Words -- Response

A few kind words is an amazing essay/short story . . . the author Terry Dobson had select words that she used to keep the readers attention. The details about what happened are so exact that you can picture this scene playing out before you while you read it. Instead of using a very dirty Japanese man she uses the following “a drunk and exceedingly dirty Japanese laborer”.



This story talks about how this drunken laborer called an elderly lady “an old whore” and was acting threatening on a train. This one lady stood up to take on this drunken laborer but an older man spoke up and the laborer and the older man talked. The old man asked the laborer if he had a wife and the laborer said “no, I don’t got no wife. I don’t got no home. I don’t got no clothes. I don’t got no tools. I don’t got now money. And now I don’t got no place to go. I’m so ashamed of myself.”



The word choice the author uses keeps everyone on his or her toes while reading the story. It is highly entertaining and the details are great. I highly recommend reading this turning point essay.