Style, Tone and Irony
Introduction
Style refers to the distinctive form in which a writer arranges his or her words in order to achieve a particular effect such as narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive, tone is the author’s attitude towards the people, situations and events in their story while irony is a figure of speech which is a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs. Three types of sarcasm are verbal, dramatic, and situational. In this paper, I intend to look at the style, tone an irony used by Junot Diaz’ in "How to Date a Brown girl, (Black girl, White girl, or Halfie)" and its differences and or similarities to the styles, tone and irony learnt in this course.
Style
The writer has used a combination of narrative and descriptive styles of writing. He has used the descriptive style to give a step by step illustration on what a man should do, how he should behave and lastly what he should say from the beginning to the end of the story (Meyer 45). The narrative style comes into play as he adds in his characters, the conflicts they will face or words they will use and the settings and or challenges they will encounter throughout the short story. This
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If this story was told in a woman’s point of view, the entire story would change since it would be more of the girl’s journey from her home, her thoughts on the boy and the “procedure” she would follow and behavior she would exhibit in front of the boy. He uses casual diction in his story such as: “Wait and after an hour go out to your corner. The neighborhood is full of traffic. Give one of your boys a shout and when he says, Are you still waiting on that bitch? Say, Hell yeah.” He uses this form to express how close he is to his friends as well as the type of language they use with each other. It also depicts that he is from the
In the essay “ ‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” is an effective writing style to persuade his audience because Rodriguez shows the reader how ironic people are in many different situations. For example, “There is something unsettling about immigrants because….well because they chatter incomprehensibly, and they get in everyone’s way. Immigrants seem to be bent on undoing American.” This reveals how Rodriguez shows verbal irony due to the fact that he is saying it but he does not really mean it for example in this quote Rodriguez said it but he is not the one who believes that while the white people are the ones who really consider immigrants as “Chatter”. To add on, Rodriguez shows this to display how the white people is just trying
Throughout this essay he focuses on keeping the tone light and humorous so as to entertain and yet still educate. We see him casually admitting his and others shortcomings as men and directing the humor at himself as he makes fun of his horrible behavior. In doing so, he makes this piece very easy for the reader to relate to; whether you are a woman
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Analyzing a symbol as a literary convention used by author, Junot Díaz makes a way to identify the purpose of the device. In his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), the mechanism is used to develop an explicit character and point of view. The symbol is a sensory image that holds rich implication that is either a narrow or broad. Occasionally the reader is cast off by the author with an unknown meaning of the symbol hence is forced to create his own interpretation. The latter principle is intentionally carried out by the author as a literary hook to draw the attention of his audience to keep reading. Moreover, the author may also use in combination with the hook the method of utilizing pathos as a way of arousing the emotions of his readership. Consequently, the author effectively brings into existence an impetus by which the reader will be controlled all due to a symbol. The use of a symbol as a literary convention in a novel creates a hidden significance. A literary convention, a symbol of faceless men, is used by Dominican-American writer, Junot Díaz to give connotation and shape to his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
In traditional writing styles, the main element to give the story meaning is the narrative itself. However, with more modern and distinct styles such as the short stories written where the narrative is no longer the primary stylistic device, but the use of metaphors and distinctive different narrators applies meaning to the stories. Though it is easy to judge what is different from tradition as inferior, this change is no different than the rise of cubism in the art world. Even though initially many would comment on the art not being “real,” or in this case, the stories being poorly written, this style has even more of an effect. After
Many critics have attempted definitions of Black Humor, none of them entirely successfully. The most significant recurring features of these definitions are that Black Humor works with: absurdity, ironic detachment4; opposing moral views held in equipoise, humanity's lack of a sense of purpose in the unpredictable nuclear age, the realization of the complexity of moral and aesthetic experience which affects the individual's ability to choose a course of action5; and a playing with the reader's ideas of reality6.
A successful descriptive narrative gives the necessary information for a reader to know the material of a text. For instance, narrating the text of a story allows the audience to connect with the feelings of the narrator. A description incorporates visuals so that the audience can recognize the image being portrayed. “Shooting an Elephant” and “The Lottery” are both descriptive narratives. Descriptive narratives give the reader a clearer understanding of the passage. “Shooting an Elephant” is the stronger descriptive narrative because of vivid sensory detail, manipulating the perception of the reader, and Orwell’s use of conflict.
However, the reader must always keep in mind the time at which this piece was written and how these relationships exemplify the realities of personal relationships during this time era. Her relationship with John is dominated by him and is almost like she is the child. Without anyone to speak to about her true feelings and stresses, she writes, another thing she must hide from John and Jennie. The reader feels a sense of fear from the narrator, “there comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 78). Yet another sign of how he does not want his wife thinking for herself and doing what she pleases. When learning about the author and her background, her feminist side shows in this piece through examples like these. The true dark sides of marriage, the loneliness, and the female role of always being superior are portrayed perfectly in this short
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
Written stories differ in numerous ways, but most of them have one thing in common; they all have a narrator that, on either rare occasions or more regularly, help to tell the story. Sometimes, the narrator is a vital part of the story since without him or her, it would not be possible to tell the story in the same way, and sometimes, the narrator has a very small role in the story. However, he or she is always there, and to compare how different authors use, and do not use, this outside perspective writing tool, a comparison between Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, Henry James’ Daisy Miller, and David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly will be done.
What goes around comes around. Sometimes life isn’t perfect. Nothing on earth is perfect, we all make mistakes and we learn from them. That’s part of being human. Relationships come and go but every time we brake up with someone, they teach us a lesson. They could teach us to become a better person or they could bring out the worst of us. In the novel called This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz, Yunior didn’t have good relationships because he always cheated. For example, he cheated on Magda with Cassandra and he cheated on Alma with Laxmi. Yunior sometimes loved them but his way of loving them was unique. He was scared to be committed to just one person. Maybe he was scared to fall in love. We live in a generation where we see all kind of crazy stuff happening in relationships. Maybe that’s how society wants us to feel,
Furthermore, the writer also develops a suspenseful mood by creating a calm and peaceful attitude of the main character in a strange and cryptic setting. The purpose of the diction that the author uses is to develop an understanding of the main character’s attitude. Moreover, it gives the readers the opportunity to feel the same emotions and feelings of the characters, as if they were in there shoes. As a final point, the writer includes a specific tone in order to make the readers develop a feeling towards the main character such as feeling sincere towards a character, or rather despising them.
Some of the characteristics of Modernism are: a desire to break conventions and established traditions, reject history, experiment, remove relativity, remove any literal meaning, and create an identity that is fluid. The rejection of history sought to provide a narrative that could be completely up for interpretation. Any literal meaning no longer existed nor was it easily given; essence became synonymous. Narrative was transformed. Epic stories, like “Hills Like White Elephants”, could occur in the sequence of a day. Stories became pushed by a flow of thoughts. The narrative became skeptical of linear plots, preferring to function in fragments. These fragments often led to open unresolved inconclusive endings. This echoes in the short story’s format. The short story functions in fragmented dialogue. Focusing on subjectivity rather than objectivity. Creating characters with unfixed, mixed views to challenge readers.
" The use of short, sharp sentences helps increase the signal-mans hysteria. Many of the events in the story are written in long, thoroughly descriptive sentences that include several commas to separate specific events, and further descriptions. Though sometimes it can be slightly difficult to follow the story, I understand that this kind of writing was common for the time. The only time the sentence structure differs is when the story is at a tenser moment. At such a point, the sentences tend to be shorter and more to the point.
Stephen's relationship with the opposite sex begins to develop early in his life. Within the first few pages of the novel lie hints of the different roles women will...