Style Analysis Of Christopher Borrelli's 'Riding The L'

Anna Van Matre

Bellottie

AP English III p.7

7 March 2017

Christopher Borrelli: Style Analysis

It is imperative to any columnist’s future in the journalistic world that he or she appeals to their audience in terms of style. A columnist has no hope of succeeding if the audience would characterize their style as snide, condescending, or disrespectful because, unless they are some kind of mental masochist, nobody wants to feel that way. Chicago Tribune columnist Christopher Borrelli makes skillful use of several rhetorical devices, some of which include simile, imagery, and rhetorical questions in order to enlighten his audience through the carefully curated use of style elements such as a conversational, inquisitive, and detached tones. These

aid him in his quest to create a welcoming and educational safe space for new readers to enjoy his material that focuses on the common man (or woman) and their successes, or the recognition they ought to have gotten in their time.
Reading a columnist article is different from reading a news story; there is a constant give and take happening, a silent tango between the author and the reader. A news story’s main objective is to inform, while the goal of a columnist story is entirely up to the whims of the author; they can educate, inspire, mourn, reflect, create… the list goes on infinitely. Borrelli chooses in many of his articles to keep up a conversational tone, allowing the reader to take in what he is describing as if talking to an old friend. “...McKay's ideas on the Negro liberation movement flash out like a diamond on the sands,” (“Why You Should”). Borrelli’s use of simile in this sentence provide ample information for the reader to truly visualize what he is attempting to translate across the computer screen; the simile “like a diamond on the sands” inspire the reader to think of McKay, the man Borrelli wishes all of us to remember, as an African American Rights Activist, not just the forgotten author of some random story. It contributes to the conversational style of his prose enormously, to have the ability to give rise to such images of precious ideas, as rare as a diamond aiding a movement that speaks to so many. “This room, in the back of his home, is dark. History touches every inch. The walls are covered with photographs of the people he knew and people he worked for and friends he made…,” (“The Long, Long Reach”). Any good storyteller will tell you that in order to make your audience really feel what you want them to, you must set the stage and describe the elements outside of the main story; they may seem irrelevant at first, but they ultimately back up the story you have crafted for their enjoyment. Borrelli does this by using imagery to “set the stage” of Newton Minow’s story. By describing Minow’s home, and all of the dark rooms where history is fairly bursting out of each hidden crevice, Borrelli is keeping up his end of the conversation: the reader can now picture that room, dark, crowded with the images of Minow’s past, secrets and stories begging to be spilled out of the room, and the small, elderly man picking his way through his memories one by one; they see it all. Unfortunately, that conversational style choice can occasionally give way to a different style: rambling. “Read to your children? … Admire the great skylines of the world?” (“Bowie”). Here, Borrelli is giving examples between each question of people who passed away in the year 2016 that were within those specific fields (children’s books, architecture). However, Borrelli does not stop there; he continues with the examples for several more lines before finally concluding the list. It is helpful for an author to provide examples of what they are describing in order to connect their readers on a more emotional level, but here it began to take away from the experience of reading the rest of the article. This rambling style occurs when the “conversation” Borrelli is having with his audience becomes one-sided before he reigns it in; the sentences become convoluted and lose the meaning they had before with the individual reader. Borrelli tends to have a conversational style when writing his articles, but the conversation occasionally falls into the trap of becoming rambly in the process of trying to connect.
A reader can tell when an author truly has an interest in and passion for what they are writing about; even if the topic is the same, it makes the difference between a boring, dull article and an engrossing, inspiring one.

“She scans up and down the car, staring at her half-dozen fellow riders for a long second or two while simultaneously not quite gawking. She looks for interesting faces, for characters to insert into her work…,” (“Riding the ‘L’”). Borrelli has an unerringly enthusiastic style for all of the subjects of each of his articles, but it is especially obvious in this one, about a disabled woman who has overcome so many of her struggles in order to complete and publish a book illustrated with her own artwork. Through his use of the rhetorical device imagery, Borrelli paints a picture of his own, through the reader’s eyes: a middle-aged woman with curly hair and a cane slowly but deliberately making her way to join him on the subway. His excitement for her story is apparent throughout the rest of the article, and his enthusiasm undoubtedly inspires his audience as well. “Celebrated (and criticized) for his sense of everyday realism and understanding of the variety in black communities, his place as a Harlem Renaissance touchstone was firm…,” (“Why You Should”). The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that took place in Harlem, New York; it drew black musicians, writers, photographers, scholars, artists, and poets to Harlem to celebrate African American culture.

Borrelli shows a clear enthusiasm for the movement and wants to give McKay the recognition he deserves as a contributor to the cultural explosion that resulted. Borrelli’s enthusiasm for all of his subjects, no matter how seemingly small (he has one article about a hot tub repairman), is unwaning and encourages his audience to become as interested in the topic at hand as he is. “Do you start with her new book, her first, being lost at sea? Or the West Nile virus? The years of cleaning other people's homes? The largely immobile childhood in Uptown?” (“Riding the ‘L’”). Borrelli also shows an inquisitive style for the majority of his articles. He begins this one, about comic artist Emil Ferris with a question, and goes on a tangent wondering about other aspects of her life with a series of rhetorical questions to get the reader more involved. His thirst for knowledge and interest in every seemingly inconsequential detail in his subject’s lives create an environment abundant with things a reader needs to get, and remain, interested and involved in a specific subject; his enthusiastic and inquisitive style choices aid him in the job of creating that fertile environment.
A seasoned journalist knows exactly when to play up the story they are discussing with their audience, and when to take a step away and look at it from a more subtle, clinical perspective.

“Death made quick work of 2016, and so thoroughly it can seem crude to mark the end of the year by merely noting the many famous names who died in the past 12 months,” (“Bowie”). Here, Borelli chooses to take a step back from the subject at hand (the loss of so many aging celebrities in 2016) and allows the reader to paint their own picture of the situation and imagine the face of the celebrity that they drew inspiration from. It gives the audience a choice in who they think about, rather than throwing every person at them one by one who passed, which would be overwhelming. “She can't move her neck well so she seems to pivot her body back in the direction of the book across her lap. This is because she was bitten by a monster once. On her 40th birthday, Ferris was bitten by a mosquito and contracted West Nile virus,” (“Riding the ‘L’”). This clinical, detached style of writing gives the individual reader some space and time to fully understand the magnitude of Ferris’s pain, without it being clouded by flowery or gaudy language. “On a window ledge beside Minow, there are silver plates engraved with his name and engraved judge gavels and awards that resemble glass pyramids. There are pictures of him with Bill and Hillary Clinton, individually...,” (“The Long, Long Reach”). Borrelli also

uses a distinct, or clear, style of language in order to fully describe a situation to the audience. It is difficult to take in and assess a situation that you have never been in, it is sensory overload to even try to document and analyze every detail you missed. He makes sure that in potentially confusing environments, the reader never gets lost in the noise; he breaks it down into clear, understandable sentences so everyone can enjoy the information he is spreading. Borrelli’s use of a detached and distinct style maintained through clear imagery and clinical observation is imperative to the happiness of his audience.
In conclusion, Borrelli uses rhetorical devices such as simile, imagery, rhetorical questions, tangents, and clinical observation to aid him in his stylistic choices of having a conversational, rambling, enthusiastic, inquisitive, detached, or distinct style at any given time. These decisions impact the reader positively by making a story easier to swallow and enjoyable to all, effectively benefitting the author and his audience. These are all points any motivated young journalist might take into consideration when developing their own future articles.