Writing Feedback / (Michele Morano's Grammar Lessons: The Subjunctive Mood) - English 101 [2]

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Michele Morano's Grammar Lessons: The Subjunctive Mood was first published in the Crab Orchard Review after successfully entering, and winning their nonfiction-literary contest through the Southern Illinois University in 2005. Using nine different sections of different subject on the subjunctive mood, Morano structures her essay to resemble that of a usual grammar lesson with the help of using multiple personal experiences to keep the reader attracted. Without any information or her background, you may question the choices behind her grammar lesson structure. With her choice following structure, she uses many different strategies that include comparing the Spanish and English languages, using second person point of view, and crisscrossing her many personal experiences. Morano extends her purpose of helping others learn using these strategies from her many personal experiences to prove and demonstrate the subjunctive mood and how it has been disconnected with our language.

If you briefly looked over this essay based on the structure, you would get the impression that Morano is going to simply explain different cases in which the subjunctive mood is used and examples of each; the story is far more than this. Using real-life examples from both the United States and Spain, she elaborates her experiences to explain the next portion of the subjunctive mood. Leaving the United States, Morano left behind a failing relationship with an immature and suicidal boyfriend all to teach English to countless University students across Spain. This context adds more reasoning and lucidity onto why she is using her experiences with her past relationship as examples throughout the essay. Structuring her essay in this way, Morano is refuting the everyday view of a standard grammar lesson and using her odd experiences to keep the reader's attention.

Starting off the text with explaining the difference between a tense and a mood, she states, "The subjunctive is a mood, not a tense. Verb tenses tell when something happens, moods tell how true" (Morano 199). Morano soon goes on to give definitions of the indicative mood, what's real or definite, and the subjunctive mood, what is indecisive. She distinguishes the differences between the two moods and ends with saying, "English is losing the subjunctive mood" (Morano 200). By architecturally formatting her essay in this way, she is supporting her main point; English is losing the subjunctive mood.

Throughout Morano's text, aside from structure, she will occasionally parallel the Spanish Language to the English language. One such example of this occurs when she states, "Si means "if." Como si means "as if" (Morano 203). Here she uses the comparison of the languages to explain another part of the subjunctive mood. The "if" and "as if" both are portions of the subjunctive because, as stated before, they are indecisive. Her main reason for her comparison between the Spanish and English languages is however still left out. Finishing her reason for the comparison, she reveals, "In Spanish, verbs change to accommodate the subjunctive in every tense" (Morano 200). The English language simply does not apply the subjunctive in every tense. This is why she states, English is losing the subjunctive mood, without exposure to the subjunctive often, her main point is further supported.

One item that becomes easily noticeable the further and further you advance through the text is the character names, or lack thereof. Using different pronouns throughout, Morano uses the second tense to make the audience feel as if they were experiencing the story themselves. As seen in a statement during one of her experience recalls, "The moment you saw the note on his office door, in the campus building where you were supposed to meet him on a Sunday afternoon, you knew" (Morano 204). In this quotation, Morano is referring to herself with "you," and referring to her suicidal husband as "him." Placing that word, you, in place of herself puts the reader in her shoes and makes it seem as if you were experiencing and learning from her mistakes; this way, they would not have to be learned the hard way like Morano had. This makes the reasoning behind the second tense become all the more acceptable.

"The subjunctive is the mood of mystery. Of luck. Of Faith interwoven with doubt. It's a held breath, a hand reaching out, carefully touching wood, its humility, deference, the opposite of hubris. And it's going to take a long time to master" (Morano 213). Remember, the subjunctive is not just a mood, but instead, a state of uncertainty or doubt. Through second hand view of her experiences and the way the reader is put in her shoes will help them learn from her mistakes all the while learning the subjunctive mood. Absorption of a grammar lesson that is lightly used by few will be difficult but fulfilling, might the subjunctive mood be placed into English once again.