The Biography of Blake Stone (rhetorical response 1)

I thought the overall essay was well written. The fact that the author was fresh out of college and won that award is great. When he first started off the story I was able to visualize everything, especially the people he described. The fact that he used descriptions such as "Blake Stone had slate blue eyes and black hair that gleamed" made the reading more enjoyable. I was able to picture each and every detail in my mind so that I could have a clean image of what Blake Stone really looked like. This awesome description that the author gave us allowed me to be engaged in the reading. Normally when I read an essay or novel it is extremely hard for me to pay attention and keep up with the material. In this case, that was not the problem at all. I was able to complete the reading in one sitting without stopping to take a break. Every time I finished a page I was anxious to start the new page. I liked the way he was sneaky every Friday at his grandma’s house. The fact that he would wait until one in the morning playing video games on the computer then turning on the chat was genius. The ways he described himself in the chat was also mistake free. He was charming online rather than in real life. This made it seem like he had two personalities. But as I thought about it a little more, this is how some people in the world are. They act totally different but when they get online and are not face to face they can act completely different. The words “you look dashing today” to talk about Anne a good example how Blake was being totally different. Besides the fact that this is a good essay, this goes to show how people on the internet can be misleading. Some may seem like they are the nicest people in the world but once you get to meet them face to face you find out that they are the biggest jerks in the world. The reason for this is anyone can act like anything when you put them behind a computer. Another prime example on why the internet can be misleading is that people are “only accessible in 12 point font.” This goes to show that no matter how honest people may seem, they are not who they say they are. During this essay, it is obvious that when Blake joins the chat Masquerade Ball everyone online is some random person. It even says in the text that nobody knew anyone outside that chat room. This shows how the internet can also be dangerous because you can never fully understand who the other person is that you may think you are talking to. It shows that when you are on the internet, you can’t trust anyone. You can’t make final judgments on people because you don’t know who they really are. Blake came across calenderGal as an honest person. She finally spilled out and told the truth to Blake. She said she was “just a fat 32 year old women from Georgia, a person that you wouldn’t want anything to do with in real life.” This part of the story caught me off guard because I did not expect her to be completely honest like that. I didn’t understand why Blake just signed off. Then again Blake probably did not know how to deal with the problem due to the fact he was only in middle school. To be honest I probably would have done the same thing. The fact that he was 12 and that there was a 32 year old woman trying to be with Blake would of freaked me out also. This shows that people can be very gullible over the internet. Here, a 32 year old girl thinks she is talking to a man and is thinking to herself that she might get a relationship out of this conversation when all she really gets is a 12 year old kid running away. The message I think this story has to offer is that people should just be who they are and not try and change something about then over the internet. People should not be ashamed of who they really are. Also, even though nothing bad happened to the internet users during this essay, that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen in real life. People should not trust any new person they met over the computer.