Figurative Language In Annie Dillard's An American Childhood

In literature, the setting poses itself as a vital element in literature. When characters interact with the world encompassing them and respond to its atmosphere, we unearth various underlining traits and secrets that ensconce betwixt the pages. Ann Petry's 1946 novel The Street accentuates the relation between Lutie Johnson and the urban setting by employing figurative language, such as imagery and personification conjointly with selection of detail.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel, Fever 1793 takes place in colonial Philadelphia, during the time of the yellow fever outbreak. Mattie Cook, a young girl during the outbreak has to cope with the many hardships brought onto her by the disease. While the fever brought many terrible things to Mattie and her family, she is able to move past them and build her life up again. By using character development and figurative language, Anderson is able to create the theme that good things can always come out of something bad.

In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.

In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the author, uses an array of figurative language in her writing. She uses similes, idioms, and hyperboles in her book to make them interesting and intriguing. Similes help compare scenarios, idioms interpret a meaning by giving an object a role, and hyperboles exaggerate an action. Figurative language captures the reader's attention and gives sensory detail.

Annie Dillard’s essay “Sight into Insight” emphasizes how one must live in the moment and not sway towards others opinions in order to gain accurate observations on a situation. She uses nature as a prominent theme in her essay to represent the thought of looking past the superficial obvious in order to go deeper to where the hidden beauty rests. Dillard wants the reader to realize in order to observe clearly you have to live in the moment and let go of the knowledge you think you know on the situation. Dillard uses the example of her “walking with a camera vs walking without one” (para.31) and how her own observations differed with each. When she walked with the camera she “read the light” (para.31), and when she didn’t “light printed” (para.31).

Helen Keller once said "...although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." This quotation means that in life, you come to find yourself in many struggles, but there is always a sense of accomplishment over such problems. The reason I agree with this quote is because such triumph can only be accomplished after the fact of the occurrence of a struggle. The realistic fiction book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a perfect example of my interpretation of the quote. The author uses conflict, figurative language and characterization to show that this quote is true.

Every Christmas there was a massive dinner held in a seemingly never-ending dining hall. It was lavish and spacious with a table that was as long as a river and was decorated with many different table cloths and decorations. The ceiling of the hall was covered in chandeliers and the floor was filled with different groupings of people: the sick and injured, the children, to those who wanted to dance or participate in games or various others who gathered in separate sections throughout the hall.

In Ann Petry’s The Street, the urban setting is portrayed as harsh and unforgiving to most. Lutie Johnson, however, finds the setting agreeable and rises to challenges posed by the city in order to achieve her goals. Petry portrays this relationship through personification, extended metaphor, and imagery.

The Writing Life is a short non-fiction book by Annie Dillard. Dillard takes the reader through many experiences that helped shape her as a writer. The book includes many well-developed metaphors that help explain her process. Annie Dillard gives an honest perspective to what it is like to be writer and how to be

In the excerpt from “Cherry Bomb” by Maxine Clair, the narrator makes use of diction, imagery and structure to characterize her naivety and innocent memories of her fifth-grade summer world.

The passage “Cherry Bomb” by Maxine Clair is the recollection of the young adult narrator’s summer in the fifth grade. Clair set a youthful,jovial and carefree tone that depicts the narrator’s summer as innocent and filled with memories.

Many of the allusions used by Annie Dillard in An American Childhood are put into the story to provide a clear cultural picture of Pittsburgh in the 1950’s. By using made of the references that she does, Dillard is able to “paint a picture” of society in the 1950’s, because she is referencing objects, places, or people that are familiar to some today, but mostly those who were alive around the 50’s or later. As well as 50’s culture references, Dillard also uses some classic American references. The first major allusions seen in the book are examples of the latter. Dillard brings up Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson in the prologue of the book while writing of pre-settled Pennsylvania, about its wildness and vast expanse

In “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, Dillard argues that there is more than one way to see the world. To allow oneself to enjoy the simple wonders and life a pleasurable life, one must see the world properly. Dillard begins “Seeing” with a story from when she was young about pennies. How she would hide them, wishing and wondering about how later on they would be found by strangers. She continues to recount multiple stories about bullfrogs and darkness to emphasize the different ways of seeing the world and how it affects the observer.

In Annie Dillard’s story The Deer at Providencia, she talks about her experiences with suffering in life. The message that Dillard is trying to convey is that nobody can escape suffering, so we have to learn to accept it as a part of life.

Gary Paulsen's unique and descriptive style of writing creates a vivid image to the reader through his simple word choice. Although his writing may seem simple, he creates an idea in the reader's mind that seems as though the reader is actually living in the short story Winter. By doing this, the reader is further engaged in the story. Paulsen creates an imaginary idea of the story for the reader of what life on the farm in the beginning of winter feels like, which engages the reader to read on.