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How Does Annie Proulx Use Syntax

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Annie Proulx illustrates the tormentous and dejected life of Quoyle by reason of his physical aspect. She uses harsh diction, cause and effect syntax, gloomy imagery and despairing figurative language to present the psychological aspect of this hopeless character as the outcome for his family’s treatment.

Firstly, Proulx describes Quoyle as a man without ambition that was constantly hurt by his family. Quoyle’s father always consider his son a failure, he all the time says, “failure to speak clearly; failure to sit up straight, failure to get up in the morning . . .” (line 24), a failure for everything. This alliteration and characterization shows Quoyle’s defects. By using harsh diction, she shows his pathetic personality through the eyes of Quoyle’s father. Her selection of words like “failure”, “damp” and “monstrous” are very stern and rough to depict Quoyle’s nature. Proulx applies harsh diction to clarify Quoyle’s hopelessness and emptiness as the result from his father’s cruel behaviour toward him. …show more content…

She is very illustrative and severe in her characterization. She states metaphorically how is his physical aspect, in one part she says: “some anomalous gene had fired up at the moment of his begetting as a single spark sometimes leaps from banked coils, had given him a giant’s chin”, in this sentence, she uses a cause and effect syntax to characterize his physical defects. This type of syntax causes a better understanding of his nature; an afflictive person that most of the time does not do anything to change. She describes how ugly he is and provokes an unpleasant perception of this character with the purpose to reveal the effects of a disturbed

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