Rate my essay: This past week in English language Arts class, we've been reading the story “Uncle Marcos” by Isabel Allende. We’ve also read the story “To Fly” by Neil deGrasse Tyson. We were asked to write down an argumentative essay describing which text “Uncle Marcos” or “To Fly”—best describes the dream or fantasy of human flight? This is my essay.
The story Uncle Marcos is about a girl named Clara and her uncle's relationship and of Uncle Marcos's adventures through his life. Together with his niece, Clara, believing in him every step of the way, he overcomes his failures and achieves his dreams. Clara hasn't seen her Uncle for 2 years but still remembers an ideal image of her Uncle Marcos. He was buried within the middle of the courtyard in a very long black coffin. Uncle Marcos would come to his sister's house for several months to enjoy time together with his nieces and nephews, but mostly Clara is who enjoyed the visits most. He went on voyages, plenty. After one of his voyages and no word, he was presumed dead. Though soon after the family’s “magical” prayers, he miraculously came back to life. He eventually went on another voyage. Uncle Marcos had died there on the last voyage. He had passed because of an illness. Then the captain of the ship that he was aboard and had his body, was tempted to throw him overboard, but was prevented and his body was sent to his sister's house.
The story “To Fly” is by Neil deGrasses Tyson. He's an American astrophysicist, planetary scientist, author, and science communicator. During this story that he wrote, he discusses the event of human flight, from myths to airplanes. Then even to space travel! Within the first paragraph he mentions myths including flying characters. “ For millennia the concept of having the ability to fly preoccupied human dreams and fantasies. Waddling around on Earth’s surface as majestic birds flew overhead, perhaps we developed a kind of wing-envy. One might even call it wing worship. You needn’t look far. The US adopted a flying predator as an emblem of its strength—the Haliaeetus leucocephalus appears on the rear of the government note, the quarter, the Kennedy coin, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and therefore the Eisenhower dollar. There’s also one on the ground of the government office within the White House. Our most famous superhero, Superman, can fly, upon donning blue panty hose and a red cape. after you die, if you qualify, you may just become an angel—and everybody knows that angels (at least those with wings) can fly. Then there's Peter Pan and his fairy sidekick Tinkerbell, the winged horse Pegasus, the wing-footed Mercury, and also the aerodynamically unlikely Cupid.” Within the 5th paragraph, he discusses when the primary airplane was built. “The Wright Brothers of Ohio are, of course, generally credited with being “first on the wing,” as North Carolina’s automobile registration code slogan is quick to remind you. But this claim has to be further delineated. Wilbur and Orville were the primary to fly a heavier-than-air, engine-powered vehicle that carried a personality's being—Orville, during this case—and that didn't land at a lower elevation than its takeoff point. Previously, people had flown in balloon gondolas, in gliders, and had executed controlled descents from cliff sides, but none of those efforts would make a bird jealous. Actually, Wilbur and Orville’s first trip wouldn't have turned bird-heads either. At 10:35 AM standard time, on December 17, 1903, the primary of their four flights thereon historic day lasted 12 seconds, at a median ground speed of 6.8 miles per hour, against an air speed of 30 miles per hour.” In paragraph 12, he talks about spaceflight. “ We didn’t build an area station, but we visited the Moon. During this effort, human bird-worship continued. Never mind that on the Moon, where there's no air and where wings are completely useless, our astronauts landed in a very spacecraft named after a bird. A mere 65 years, 7 months, 3 days, 5 hours, and 43 minutes after Orville left the bottom, the spaceman gave his first statement from the Moon’s surface, ‘Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed’.”
After reading these two stories, in my opinion, I believe the story “To Fly” by Neil deGrasse Tyson best described the dream/ fantasy of human flight. The story of Uncle Marcos doesn’t really explain much about the dream/ fantasy of human flight. It’s just a fictional story talking about an Uncle who just about seems to need attention from everyone. On the opposite hand, the story “To Fly” seems non-fictional. This story states facts, as listed above, in paragraph 3.