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Shaun Thielen

Professor Kane

English 115 F

31 October 2019

Letter to the Author

Dear Ms. Angelou,

In my English class at CSUN we are reading a book called “Gather Together in My Name”

which just so happens to be written by you. The book thus far has taken many twists and turns

all so random and jarring that it can only be synonymous of the truth. Your narration style

however strikes me as quite unique in the way that you manage to speak in such a paradoxically

distant and at the same time hand in hand with the story as it progresses through a direct

dialogue. This strikes me as particularly odd as the style of autobiographical novels tends to veer

more towards the first person perspective rather than a typical storybook narrative style.

Furthermore, the perspective of the narrator at times portrays future events in a prophet like style

but this narrative focuses more on the descriptiveness of the scene and the specific details of the

circumstances within each individual situation. Even further beyond is your historical call backs

to grasp the context of characters often characterizing the type of person they are right as a

significant event is occuring. For example, in chapter 23 more information is provided about

Rita’s mother maintaining a “stand your ground” mentality when faced with violence, however

this information was told right before Rita’s mother was being arrested for cutting the face of

Good-Doing David. A large part of the entertainment in this book comes from the

unpredictability of Rita(you) as the influence of youth and the boldness that comes with the
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freedom and desire for success drives her into making many decisions less than optimal. While

in a literary sense, choosing the unpredictable approach of real life impacts is a bold move the

entertainment comes from the ability to resonate with you the author as having moments and at

times thought processes that are inherently flawed and yet is pursued further or is currently being

pursued. However back to the specifics of narration, the style is even more jarring than the

premise behind the relatability of the book’s events as the narration is a detailed glance at the

past events in meticulous detail and a large amount of direct thoughts and thought processes.

Personally I can’t relate to the quantity and detail of your descriptions, so instead I sit in awe of

the processes that your brain could go through to hold the extreme detail of information that you

used in the creation of this book. Because of the fine detail I can imagine a lot of the scenes in

my head as a type of movie scene with each detail as a close-up shot of the smells of visual cues

relating to the progression of the story. I have a large quantity of respect towards you and the

methods that you used to craft this masterful autobiography in such an easy to digest format

while still providing further details to merge imagination as well as the direct absorption of the

information of the event. Personally, my ability to depict even recent events leave much to be

desired when it comes to the quality of the details, there can be a good amount of quantity but

most don’t have the validity to be relevant to the description at all causing a loss of value in the

description and purpose of the story itself. You manage to avoid many of these pitfalls many

times and I am entranced by the simplicity of your structure in the book as well as the realism of

the narration saying things that are relevant just before they are actually needed. Lastly, by

incorperating your own history into the book as an autobiography, the sentimental value must be

huge as it impacts the view of your legend as a writer while exposing your past dealings and
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struggles all at the same time, I admire the bravery it must take to be subjected to the public eye

with literal events that you describe so perfectly.

Sincerely,

Shaun Thielen