Etched In Sand Analysis

In Regina Calcaterra’s memoir, Etched in Sand, the speaker is Regina as a ten-year-old female, who was being abused, and forced to grow up much faster than most, other children her age. She wrote this book to reach her siblings, and show her love for them; but she also was looking to reach out to children who were/are being abused, are in foster care, and who are homeless. The book was set in The Hamptons of Long Island, during the 1970s and 1980s. Regina and her four other sibling were being abused by their mother, who was hooked on drugs and alcohol, and was all around a very irresponsible person. This group of siblings, were moving quite often because their mother either did not remember to pay the bill, or they were sleeping in the back

This next quote can be considered both pathos as well as ethos. Cookie is dependent upon Camille and Regina, in the way they should be dependent upon Cookie. For instance at one point Cookie told her daughters, “I’m going to find the hair of the dog that bit me. Feed the kids” (15) This appeals to pathos, because no ten-year-old child should be responsible for feeding her younger siblings, and Cookie does not even refer to Regina or Camille as children, in Cookie’s mind, only Norman and Rosie are young enough to be considered children or “kids”. However, at the same time due to the fact that Regina and Camille were so young and responsible for caring for Norman and Rosie, it shows how mature, responsible, and trustworthy they were throughout the book. Not only were they the people providing for the family, but they were feeding, bathing, comforting, and caring for them, meanwhile there was nobody but themselves to to do that for one another. Along with many rhetorical appeals, Calcaterra used many literary devices/techniques. The technique focused on below is imagery. There was a point in the excerpts we read that had very vivid imagery that helped appeal to