First off, this has been my favorite short story we’ve read so far this semester. It had a complete grip on me from the very first sentence all the way to the last. Honestly, it made me tear up by the end. I really want to focus on how descriptive Groff was while also allowing the story to move forward. The way she explored the five senses and added such detail to each scene, character, or thought, is what I believe engaged me so much. Without ever even learning the narrators name, I felt as if I were her. I could see through her eyes, smell what she smelled, tasted what touched her tongue, and touched everything she had felt. Yet, it was never too much. Groff blended it with other characters stories or simply the motions of the narrators routine. On top of this, it had such wonderful detail in the small innate things we do as humans that often don’t get picked up. I felt this most with the narrators co-worker, Anais. I think this connects back to a lot of what we talked about last class. As humans, our brains make connections with the five senses seamlessly because they have never not been a part of our experience in the world. Therefore, as writers, we tend to either neglect or forget the fact we have such a natural act to pull inspiration from. Or, how powerful our brains are in making such deep connections with the world. I greatly appreciate how much Groff tapped into it with this short story. One thing that I am left wondering, though, is what to make of the title. I looked up annunciation for the definition and it came back with a slight religious connotation or the literal idea of word pronunciation. My first thought went to Anais and her evangelical ties, but maybe this is something we can discuss this Tuesday.
Journal #7
