Dreams Dissipated Summary

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In the excerpt, “Dreams Dissipated” by Mark Twain, one must look closely in order to see the author’s main argument. This excerpt describes the events before and after the 1865 San Francisco earthquake, and under more scrutiny, its citizenry. Throughout his work, Mark Twain implements several examples of strategies such as loaded diction, imagery, personification and use of litotes in order to reveal that during these times of trouble, a facade had dissipated along with the earthquake, one where it revealed the citizens true identity; a deplorable one.
It is critical to keep in mind the time period and authors background when analyzing diction used in Mark Twain’s, “DREAM Dissipated”. This work was written during a time period in American …show more content…

One example may be when describing when “ Prominent citizens who were supposed to keep Sabbath strictly, rushed out of saloons in their shirt sleeves, with billiard cues in their hands. Dozens of men with necks swathed in napkins, rushed from barber-shops, lathered to the eyes..” In the example, it appeals to one’s visual sense, for one can imagine the men bustling out into the street, the shaving cream cut by their sweat as they try to escape from any danger. When reading what occurs, one can easily visualize it , and by doing so, demonstrates how it is an example of imagery, but if one where to look closely, Twain describes how one example of how a facade is dissolved with the earthquake. With Twain’s argument in mind and when applied to this above example, one can see how by describing certain events, Twain also reveals facades exposed and therefore, he discreetly inserts his argument, for it is never explicitly said.. This meaning, Twain “decorates” the story with imagery such as “raising dust like a great volume of smoke” in order to imply the argument. Like from the example mentioned earlier, Twain used this scene to also describe “prominent citizens” pouring out from saloons as well, and uses the example as a continuation, when if one were to look closer, can see Twain’s argument. By using examples of imagery, Twain also inserts his argument as well, yet does not explicitly acknowledge

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