Crtical response to Duane's Caught Inside - Essay Example

In this way, bits and pieces of the aforementioned points are revealed in an almost imperceptible way so that the reader gains a more full and complete understanding of the lifestyle and world-view of the individuals involved in the actions of this book. As a means of understanding this unique approach, this author will focus upon Chapter 13 of Duane’s book and enumerate on some of the pertinent themes, sub-themes, and topics that are discussed as a means to outline and understand the level of approach and detail that the author gives to the reader.

The material within this particular chapter is organized and presented by means of a journey. As the story teller meets with a friend and ventures to the house of a third party, a general discussion on the life of a surfer, what is important, what matters, traveling, relationships, danger, and the ever present worries over where the funding for the next adventure will come from are all discussed. In this way, the storyteller finds himself perennially comparing his own financial and personal situation to that of those that the story introduces.

This is carried out by means of actual physical comparisons to the type and quality of the vehicles that are driven, and the niceties that present themselves within the house of the individual who is being visited. However, all of this description, discussion, and analysis serves as but a type of lead up to the action that is going to take place as the three men join together and embark on a rapid trip to the ocean side to engage in an afternoon full of surfing. The almost religious overtones, the writer describes the awe inspiring spiritual elements that surfing provides to the practitioner (Lanagan 283).

Whereas doing this without the background story would not engage the reader and would prove to be nothing more than a very long winded soliloquy of the benefits of a particular type of lifestyle, by interweaving the information regarding this type of lifestyle and relying on other means of conveyance (rather than the speaker himself), the author is able to present a clear and well explicated set of reasons for why the particular lifestyle advocated and described is perhaps far superior to almost any other model that is currently in existence.

Although this particular life is not for everyone, as the author notes, the benefits that it offers those who engage with it can never truly be understood or explained. Using the wife of the gentleman that is visited as an example, the author works to show the means by which even those that do not understand the lifestyle can at least appreciate the significance that it engenders within the lives of those that they love and respect. The approach that the author takes towards revealing the subject matter and discussing it within this particular chapter is necessarily experiential.

Although no model of research can attempt to capture the attention of an individual in the same way that a firsthand account of adventure and excitement can, the author works to bring out the experiential factors that have encouraged countless others in the past to pursue their dreams at the expense of some semblance of