Lydia's Story

1. Brideau's main point is that many people can preserver through many hardships including natural disasters. And also through hardships you must hold onto hope, even though sometimes hardships may push you to the limit you must be determined to keep moving forward/reaching your goal. She points this out in the last paragraph when she talks about hope and determination.

2. This story is primarily written in the First Person Point of View, this impacts the story and the way it affects the reader tremendously. First of all since it is in first person it makes what Lydia says so much more personal and heart felt, she is able to express her emotions this way more effectively. The little portion of the story that is written in Third Person shows how it has affected Brideau, this shows how Lydia's story comes across to people and how she can leave a mark on an individual.

3. Brideau makes the story come alive by using words that are powerful and make your brain start imagining the sticky situations she was caught in. Words like panic, cramped, toxic, swollen, hope, rescued, terrified, drowning, and strength all come across to me as powerful words to me that each hits a certain emotion. For example panic, cramped, toxic, swollen all make you nervous and anticipate what would happen next. Hope, rescued, and strength make you feel relieved. And the words terrified and drowning make you feel fear. All her word choice was well done.

4. Since it was published in a journal of health policies and research her audience must have been very larger. Her writing probably reached out to aspiring medical students, doctors, psychologist, most likely viewed by someone of every profession in the medical field or interested in the medical field. I believe that her tone spoke well to all of her readers, it was a very informative and at the same time personal and sympathetic. It spoke form the eyes of a Hurricane Survivor and showed the thought process of the individual and how she was thinking as she was trying to survive. The part where she describes standing on top of the table and then needing to move to higher ground showed her thought process. She then get on top of her linen closet and waits it out, then as she realizes the water receding she then believes its time to react and come up with a resolution to her problem. When she says that she was glad she 'kept her head' it makes you feel glad she survived her incident