This paper will be a unique interpretation coupled with an analysis of rhetoric in A Thousand Acre’s by Jane Smiley. This non-fiction novel is told in third person omniscient and is focused on the point of view of one of the main characters, Ginny Cook. A Thousand Acres was a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear; set on a large farm and small town in Iowa. This setting is important to the plot because it is more realistic compared to a far away mystical land that is detached from its audience. Smiley uses various rhetorical and literary techniques within her book to engage readers while still keeping to the basic storyline previously written by Shakespeare. Smiley’s use of language positively aids the imagery and emotions seen …show more content…
79). This quote shows how Ginny no longer puts her father first and that he Ginny even realizes that she is built off her presence in their community, “I was so remarkably comfortable with the discipline of making a good appearance!” (Smiley, pg. 701). Smiley uses a lot of imagery to describe what Ginny is feeling and experiencing that is effective at engaging the audience and almost puts them in her shoes. I personally felt as if I was next to Ginny throughout the whole novel due to this imagery and language. Larry Cook, father of Ginny, Rose, and Caroline as well as the main landowner of the thousand-acre farm, is the next character to be analyzed. He is introduced in the book as farmer that is looked up to by his community due to his success. He is the antagonist within the novel and slowly loses his sanity as the story progresses. This loss of sanity is due to Larry’s power and greed that take over him. It begins with his idea to retire and give his land evenly to Rose and Ginny, but after this massive life shift occurs he starts acting irrationally and lashes out at his previous caretakers. The foreshadowing of the major storm aligns perfectly with Larry’s final breaking point with Ginny, “His voice modulated into a scream, ‘Or tell me what I can do and what I can’t do. You barren whore! I know all about you, you slut.” (Smiley, pg. 452). After this, Rose talks to Ginny about their father raping them for years,
The excerpt from Mary Oliver’s “Building the House” serves as a way to describe what happens during the poetry writing process. Although Mary Oliver believes that writing poetry is hard work, she uses extended metaphor, juxtaposition, and point of view to describe the writing process in comparison of building a house, which shows that Oliver sees poetry as something that involves mental labor which is a different challenge than physical labor .
The rhetorical devices that Jane Addams mentions in her speech are hypophora, metaphor, conduplicatio, enumeratio, and personification. Each of these devices has a purpose in the passage, with the author combining all of the devices to strengthen her essay.
The use of descriptive language is important for the writer to entertain, persuade and teleport the reader into their work. Descriptive use and imagery allow the reader to experience the setting, sound, taste, and mood as if they can live through it. Which takes us to Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Not only does he use exceptional details and imagery throughout the play between the characters, but the way he uses word allows us to put ourselves into the play as if we can feel what they feel. It also allows us to experience and go through the play as if we are in it also. So in this paper, I would like to focus on a few major moments where I believe Shakespeare descriptive language is the strongest.
Compare or contrast the role that reason (logic or logos) and passion (emotion or pathos) play within the novel.
Jane Addams’ speech explains her stance of George Washington's legacy as a soldier, statesman, and a Virginia planter. In this speech, Jane Addams references George Washington’s accomplishments in his past, including how things would be if he is to be present today. The most significant uses of rhetorical devices in this speech include hypophora, rhetorical questions, enumeratio, distinctio, and metaphors.
In this nostalgic and cynical novel we read about the painful transformation from youth to adulthood in a young boy called Holden. This troubled state of mind young boy, in his adolescent years, gives us an in-depth insight into the climax moment of his life which stretches over a period of three days. A very troubled and confused, depressed and insecure young man shows us that he is desperate for acceptance, regardless from where. He is constantly looking for some form of connection and for someone to acknowledge him. The approaching adulthood seems so phoney to him and he displays the mourning loss of the nurturing feeling of childhood, which seems light years away. Sadly his status of being of an affluent and wealthy teenager from a good
During the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, author J.D. Salinger brings Holden’s pessimistic, antisocial personality to life through what he says, how he says it, and through the characters he meets. Salinger bases Holden’s expressions off of the culture of the 1950’s, his own personal dialect, and the everyday occurrences of Holden’s life in mind. J.D. Salinger manipulates the diction, uses syntax to criticize others, and controls the character interaction and dialogue in order to create the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
The rhetorical devices found in the speech that Jane Addams wrote are hypophora, metaphor, conduplicatio, enumeratio, and personification. Each of these devices has a purpose in the passage, with the author combining all of the devices to strengthen her essay.
Rachel Carson purposely uses ethos, a means of convincing someone through an ethnic appeal, in her book Silent Spring. Using a variety of means of persuasion, she pleads to the readers in ways that affect them personally. She starts in chapter one, “A Fable for Tomorrow” by first describing the perfect world. Carson then proceeds to portray a fabricated story of the perfect storm scenario of chemical poisons in the atmosphere. She further clarifies this is not an attack, but rather self-infliction. From there, she describes in details the underlying problems brought upon humans by the chemical poisons used to control insects in chapter two, The Obligation to Endure. It additionally specifies the layout of the history of intervention by
There is no doubt in the fact that Mrs Elliot felt the need to present such a spirited speech to inform us that technology such as "modification of genome" are revolutionizing the traditional way of having an offspring as nature intended . The clever use of overstatements such as "generating outrage in the world" achieve the attention of spectators and arouse strong extreme emotional response, positioning the audience to visualise what it would be like to have a World War III due to some engineering of babies. The use of multiple rhetorical questions such as: "would you want a child to suffer a debilitating illness, or, selfishly endure yourself the pain and responsibility?", provokes feelings and position listeners to react emotionally, before
Jill Bolte Taylor’s speech is an incredible insight into how the brain can work in certain moments and the functions of both hemispheres. She uses a mixture of everyday language and a language that only a certain community can understand, it was a comparison with the computer programming world. Jill uses amazing body language to help get her message across and demonstrate the movements of her life. Most importantly she uses descriptive wording, gives and educational stand point and the reasoning she started her career is compassionate.
William Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. He wrote short stories, plays, essays, and screenplays. He is mainly known for his creative imaginary stories that were based on Lafayette County, Mississippi where he spent most of his life. Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature and especially Southern literature. He spent majority of his childhood years sitting around listening to his elders and family members telling stories that included war stories of the Civil war and slavery. “A Rose for Emily was his first story that was published in a major magazine called the Forum.” When the short story was first published, it didn’t do that well in the
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.
But the fluidity of interior life turns poisonous precisely because it is suppressed. All of it comes back to the double-edged sword of patriarchy and capitalist industrial farming, embodied by Larry. Ginny and Rose are "trying to figure out how to understand him better. I [that is, Ginny] feel like there's treacherous undercurrents all the time. I think I'm standing on solid ground, but then I discover that there's something moving underneath it, shifting from place to place. There's always some mystery. He doesn't say what he means."(104). From Larry, it spreads to all the other characters, like Ginny and Ty: "We had spent our life together practicing courtesy, putting the best face on things, harboring secrets."(260) In the end, nobody can be trusted, the poison influences everbody.
King Lear, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, is about the delegation of power from the old generation to the young, new generation. Furthermore, the play demonstrates problems that can arise from a transfer made too early, from one generation to the next. A Thousand Acres is a modern retelling of King Lear, that is similar to King Lear, but it is not an exact word for word copy. The overall plot has been retained from King Lear, but some of the minor details have been changed to provide an intriguing new take on the same story. One such change is the fact the story goes from a third person view in King Lear, mostly following King Lear, to a first person narrative from the perspective of Ginny in A Thousand Acres. Ginny is the modern day version for Goneril’s character. King Lear and A Thousand Acres may take place in two different time periods; they both offer comments on the status of women, family relationships, and the natural order of things. The two time periods may be different, one modern day and the other set in the past, however the ideas presented are not that different on a whole. Both works presented share the same common thematic and universal elements throughout.