"Street Haunting: A London Adventure" Response

Woolf's essay starts with the simple task of possessing a lead pencil and eventually turns into a journey to acquire this object. Like in a play, she perfectly sets up the stage with acute detail, providing the reader with an exact image in mind: "The hour should be the evening and the season winter." She also sets up a sharp contrast between winter and summer. By doing this, she communicates to the reader her ideas about life and the way people are composed on an attainable level. Woolf's imagery and language also help display a journey. At first, the essay reminded me of a word association. The ideas that Woolf brought up were consecutive and related in some way, but in many cases they still seemed random and even fleeting. When I finished the essay, however, I realized that these thoughts weren't actually random, that in they end they formed a flowing, cohesive piece. Each scenario Woolf describes is inextricably related and significant to the journey of attaining this lead pencil. I think both the reader and the essayist do ultimately get a sense that this is a journey. It isn't a heroic journey, but with imagery and uses of hyperbole, Woolf manages to compile these moments into a journey that isn't defined by the narrator's ultimate goal but by the experiences she has along the way.