Friday, March 10, 2017

The School Cafeteria

            The cafeteria. It is full of piercing noises, crowded tables, dirty floors, and discourteous individuals.  To enter, I walk over to the line in the front of the cafeteria with my ID card in hand, and I swipe my ID card on the scanner connected to a seemingly outdated laptop. I then make my way toward the end of the line of other students in order to get lunch. The line extends to almost half of the cafeteria. But, I see in the corner of my eye, a group of five people that just skipped to the front of the line by bypassing the pointless blue rope that only extends to an eighth of the line. Sometimes the cafeteria workers serve tasty chicken nuggets, while other times they serve slightly charred pizza. When I am finally able to obtain lunch, I look up and see posters that describe the theme of the day like “Chicken Monday” and “Pizza Friday.” I take the recyclable tray with a grilled cheese sandwich on it and I try to find a place to sit. I am like a lone sniper scouting out a battlefield when I am finding a place to sit. There are vending machines in the middle of the cafeteria for water, Pop-Tarts, chips, and other snacks, but more importantly, I see an open space in the table that is in front of the vending machine for water. However, it seems that someone left a present in the form of a half-eaten sandwich on the floor, ketchup stains on the table, and bread crumbs on both the table and the floor. I ignore these things and try to enjoy my sandwich, but I then hear some people around me shout at each other like they are at a concert, even though their friends are sitting right next to them. The questionable topics they talk about and the crude language they use are not pleasant to listen to. However, the worst person is the one that is constantly shaking their leg in the table, similarly to how a dog would shake its leg. The action shakes the table and leaves me to wonder if that person has any self-control. When I hear the ringing noise of the whistle signaling to leave, I throw out my tray instead of leaving it on the table like some people, and I silently rejoice as I walk to my next class.

2 comments:

  1. The dominant impression shown in this essay is one of annoyance at the people and the messy environment around her. This dominant impression is conveyed with the use of metaphors such as "However, the worst person is the one that is constantly shaking their leg in the table, similarly to how a dog would shake its leg," which shows the author's irritation with the people in the cafeteria by comparing something to another equally annoying object. In addition, she also uses a sarcastic diction to emphasize her distaste for the environment around her when she states, "However, it seems that someone left a present in the form of a half-eaten sandwich on the floor..." This shows the author's displeasure with the messy cafeteria by using a sarcastic tone to convey the mood to the audience.

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  2. I believe the dominant impression is that of irritation and disgust. It is obvious that the state of the cafeteria and the actions taking place annoys the author. For example, she states that the people around her shout at each other like they are at a concert even though they are right next to each other. She uses words like crude language, questionable topics, and discourteous individuals to help convey the feeling of botheration. I can picture the cafeteria with the vending machines and crowded tables and the messy floors as she points out when someone left a gift of a half-eaten sandwich, bread crumbs and ketchup stains. She adds humor when mentioning this to make light of the situation. You can sense the sarcastic nature,because no one would be thrilled with a "gift" like that. Then we see that she is quite content to leave the cafeteria when the bell rings because she says she "rejoice as I walk to my next class."

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