Alice McDermott Reading

Last Tuesday April 3rd I went to listen to the Alice McDermott reading. Father Linnane opened the talk by giving us Alice’s background, and then introduced her to the crowd. It was interesting to see who McDermott was and what influenced what she wrote about.
The excerpt Alice McDermott read was about a young boy who plays the piano in an apartment building above a couple. The couple admires the music and makes listening to it a part of their daily ritual. Finally the woman meets the young boy who plays it and asks all questions she thought of when she heard him play. Like what type of piano it is. She finished the reading and discussed what inspires her writing.
Alice started her speech by giving the audience her history with the Jesuits. She said her history with the Jesuits isn’t long, and that her first communication with them was when her son went to a Jesuit High School. What she really liked about the Jesuits was the fact that “one goal of Jesuit education is eloquence.” Alice thought that was a great goal and she wanted to be a part of it. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, eloquence is the quality of persuasive, powerful expression. That is a quality McDermott hopes to posses in her writings and speeches.
We can easily relate to Alice’s influence since Loyola is a Jesuit school. I too have seen eloquence as a goal of Jesuit education. I think the variety of classes that the core provides and the unique Jesuit way of teaching is giving us the appropriate knowledge to allow us to express ourselves in a persuasive, powerful manner. By attending McDermott’s reading I saw another way Jesuit education affected someone, and how she used what she learned and tied it into her work and everyday life.