In Maxine Hong Kingston’s essay, “The Misery of Silence,” the style is a mix of repetitive events and experiences the narrator goes through explained with descriptive adjectives written throughout a relatively fast paced essay. The author starts the introduction with an example of how hard it is for the narrator to speak English, “‘What did you say?’ says the cab driver, or ‘Speak up’, so I have to perform again, only weaker the second time.” Another example of a tragic experience is found later in the essay, “I hoped that she would not cry, fear breaking up her voice like twigs underfoot. She sounded as if she were trying to sing though weeping and strangling. She did not pause or stop to end the embarrassment. She kept going until she said …show more content…
The author also tends to add a lot of descriptive adjectives to her writing. For example, “A telephone call makes my throat bleed and takes up that day's courage. It spoils my day with self-disgust when I hear my broken voice come skittering out into the open. It makes people wince to hear it.” The descriptive words: self-disgust, spoil, and wince provide the needed explanation to the reader for how the narrator feels. As the reader gets deeper into the essay more examples of these descriptive adjectives become present, “It was when I found out I had to talk that school became a misery, that the silence became a misery. I did not speak and felt bad each time that I did not speak. I read aloud in first grade, though, and heard the barest whisper with little squeaks come out of my throat.” This line is full of unique adjectives about how the narrator feels about speaking English. Words like: misery, barest, whisper, and the phrase “little squeaks” all add to Kingston’s style of writing and show her descriptive language used when writing. Although the essay does not lack detail or description, the essay is particularly
Silence — the sound of quiet, the state of mind, the lack of meaning — all these pertain to its definition. Communication is expanding, noise is increasing, music is becoming more obtainable as people search desperately for a moment of peace or a breeze of silence. As the scarcity of physical silence increases, its value as a rare commodity increases as well. The idiom “Silence is golden” may perhaps only grow closer to reality as time passes, as exemplified by the white noise machines or silent fans entering the market and fictionalized in Kevin Brockmeier’s short story, “The Year of Silence.” In light of this, Brockmeier explores the value of silence and noise in his story without putting one above the other. Through strange clues and hidden
The book Quiet by Susan Cain explains that extroverts are the type of people who are talkative and sociable, therefore, they could easily get others' attention during various conversations with the topics that they are discussing. Introverts, on the other hand, are the more quiet type. The ideas from introverts are usually drowned because they do not talk as much as the extroverts do. Introverts don’t expect themselves to handle leadership positions, but it doesn’t mean they cannot be successful leaders at their jobs. We often assume that talker as smarter than the quiet type and perceive talkers as leaders. However, introverts actually make the best leaders by carefully listen to what their followers have to say; not only because introverts gain knowledge by listening, but also their abilities to demonstrate modesty and they are extremely
In the commencement of the story, the narrator is shocked and in disbelief about the news of his brother’s incarceration, “It was not to be believed” (83). It had been over a year since he had seen his brother, but all he had was memories of him, “This would always be at a moment when I was remembering some specific thing Sonny had once said or done” (83). The narrator’s thoughts about Sonny triggered his anxiety that very day. It was difficult to bear the news of what his brother had become, yet at some point he could relate to Sonny on a personal level, “I hear my brother. And myself” (84). After the news had spurred, the narrator experienced extreme anxiety to the point of sweating. Jus...
...ew paragraph every time someone new speaks. He uses phrases and words such as “Heavy Boots,” “Extremely,” and “I’m OK.” Oskar’s grandfather, one of the main characters, the renter, accounts often start with the title “Letters to my unborn son,” which allow you to see his deep sense of regret. He writes to express himself. Often he uses phrases such as, “Do you know what time it is?” and “I’m sorry I don’t speak.” He also uses big paragraphs, that show’s he has a lot he has not been able to say for years, and once he starts speaking it is very hard to stop him. Oskar’s grandmother’s chapters are titled,” My Feelings.” She loves puns, and phrases. Often she will speak in short sentences, and paragraphs. One gets the feeling that she is not used to sharing large details about her life, despite her self-consciousness she tries to tell her story and create her character.
Style is a literary technique that authors use to reveal information about various aspects of the narrative. Style can be utilized as a way for the audience to read between the lines and unveil key information. Pejorative language expresses criticism and bad opinions. Flannery O'Connor's pejorative style is exhibited in many of her short stories. From the dialogue of a convict in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” to the thoughts of not so wise Hulga in “Good Country People” her pejorative style unveils the perceptions of characters.
Throughout the story Kincaid uses a series of long sentences to convey both the tone of the text and the theme of it as well. The tone of the text comes right from the mother who we clearly see is strict and obedient. The mother preaches to her daughter explaining how to do certain household chores and how to act. The long sentences symbolize the many orders that the mother gives to her daughter. The text flows as a stream of consciousness with the ideas coming right from the mother. This style shows the reader how repressive the mother’s demands are to a modern women that we wou...
daunting mass, lies on the page something so obscured that it can only communicate Grandfather’s amplified silence (Foer, #). As Atchison notes on this occasion, “no room yields no voice” (Atchison, 365). In this instance, Grandfather’s representation of language serves as a symbolic release as he struggles to express the disorder that resulted from his personal trauma. The chaos of Grandfather’s communication, therefore, serves not only to emphasize the survivor’s linguistic processing of his psychological aftermath, but also the effect that takes place on the audience as they attempt to make sense of his coping method.
By starting this essay with narrative writing he captures the reader’s attention, especially the readers with the same literary repertoire. This is what happened in my case. I have a certain fascination for cars, so when I noticed it was about a car it just grabbed my attention and kept it.
The White Silence is about Ruth, her husband Mason, and the Malamute Kid on a trek through the Yukon with their dogs. Resources are scarce so they only have enough food for themselves and nothing to share with the dogs. They set out on their journey after they finish eating. The dogs are weak from having no food and Carmen, one of the dogs falls in the traces. Mason slashes the dog with his whip, which starts an argument with Malamute Kid. Mason decides to leave the dying dog behind and ventures ahead of Ruth and Malamute Kid, stopping by a large pine tree. The pine tree falls from the weight of the snow onto Mason, crushing his shoulder. He survives but is gravely injured, Ruth and Malamute Kid are unable to take him back with them. Mason tells Malamute Kid to take care of Ruth and to go on without him, but Malamute Kid pleads to wait three day before leaving; Mason agrees to allow them to stay only one day. With no improvement from Mason, Ruth says her goodbyes to her husband and her and Malamute Kid leave Mason behind.
In this narrative, Douglass describes his life as a slave in ways that is brutalizing and dehumanizing. He wants his readers to understand that concept. By doing this, Douglass writes, “I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness; I trembled in every limb” (416). Douglass uses diction such as seized, aching, extreme dizziness, and trembled to help create a picture of the pain he had felt during his experiences of being a slave for Mr. Covey. Another example is when he writes, “I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up I tried to do so, but fell back in the attempt. He gave me another kick, and again told me to rise. I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell” (416-17). Words like scarce, savage, and staggered place imagery into the reader’s minds of what he went through as a slave. One other way that Douglass shows how his words emphasize the message is when he writes, “The blood was yet oozing from the wound on my head. For a time I thought I should bleed to death; and think now that I should have done so, but that the blood so matted my hair as to stop the w...
In Maxine Hong Kingston’s autobiographical piece “Silence”, she describes her inability to speak English when she was in grade school. Kindergarten was the birthplace of her silence because she was a Chinese girl attending an American school. She was very embarrassed of her inability, and when moments came up where she had to speak, “self-disgust” filled her day because of that squeaky voice she possessed (422). Kingston notes that she never talked to anyone at school for her first year of silence, except for one or two other Chinese kids in her class. Maxine’s sister, who was even worse than she was, stayed almost completely silent for three years. Both went to the same school and were in the same second grade class because Maxine had flunked kindergarten.
Students have been writing essays since education was formalized centuries ago. There are several formats that they are taught throughout the course of their formal education, two of the most common being; Narrative, and Descriptive. Both of these have distinct characteristics that define them, and while they share many similar qualities and are developed to make the reader immerse themselves in the story. Narratives tend to have the power to capture and persuade on a deeper level than most descriptive papers. Two prime examples are the narrative I Want a Wife by Judy Brady and the descriptive essay Fish Cheeks by Amy tan. While they both do an exceptional job at delivering a lesson Brady’s causes you to think from the beginning, her use of the rhetorical devices such as pathos, ethos, and logos are incorporated with a heavy use of sarcasm and harsh remarks that claws for the reader’s attention.
By stating how other people behave or interact, the author offers a great chance for readers to interpret fairly for themselves what the reason for any conflict may be, or the nature of any essential contrast between the narrator and other adults in the story. In the story, there are many self-righteous opinions from people, which seem to be ironic to the readers; For example, her mother’s aggressive attitude of showing off her daughter, her piano teacher’s self-praise claiming him as “Beethoven.” All of the narrations including conversation clearly depict a different characteristic between the narrator and other people. For instance, a conversation occurs between the narrator and her mother when the mother criticizing a girl who seems similar to the author on TV which reveals dissimilar understanding for both of them to each other’s behavior. At first, the daughter speaks out for the girl by questioning her mother by saying “why picking on her […] She’s pretty good. Maybe she’s not the best, but she’s trying hard.” The daughter actually is defending for herself and reflecting that she feels uncomfortable with her mother’s disregard of her hard work. She wants to get her mother’s compliments instead of her criticisms. However, her mother response of, “just like you,” and, “not the best. Because you not trying.” Here, her mother doesn’t really answer her question, instead wants her put more effort on trying, neglecting how much she has tried before. However, in her mother’s perspective, she has never tried hard enough. By narratively stating the conversations she has encountered, readers perceive a strong implication of the reason for a future conflict between her and her mother.
Helen Keller took an autobiographical approach to her writings, accounting for moments in her past and how she perceives the world. Although informal, her writing style is intimate with a desire to communicate her struggles in a confident, overcoming manner. Helen Keller uses figurative language and descriptions as well as many rhetorical strategies including metaphors, similes, personification and diction to expose her emotions.
To truly compare or justify anything to be superior to something else, you must have more than one thing to compare. When I start to review narrative and descriptive essays, I have to try to understand what separates the two. I chose to compare “Caged Bird”, by Maya Angelou as my Descriptive essay and “How to say nothing in 500 words”, by Paul McHenry Roberts as my narrative essay. To me these two essays set themselves apart from each other, not just because of the different styles of writers, but the meaningful message that was delivered in both essays. While both of these essays have a strong message that it delivers, but only one truly keeps my attention, answers all of my questions, and helps me to imagine every word that is in the text. In the text of, “Essentials of College Writing”, it is stated, “Consider what would be interesting to you as a reader and what kinds of details and information you look for when you read a piece of personal writing”, (Connell, C. M., & Sole, K., (2013), Chapter 6. Section 6.2, paragraph 5). As a writer I believe it you have to grab the reader’s attention, answer whatever questions they have, and really help them imagine what they are reading. Initially, I was leaning to favor the descriptive essay, “The Caged Bird”, written by Maya Angelou, but after further consideration and critiques, I discovered that, “How to say nothing in 500 words”, written by Paul McHenry Roberts won me over. This change of mind came to me as I read each essay over again and then it was a clear choice of which essay was arguably the better style.