Josh Picker
Mr. Blackstone
AP Lang
10/24/22
Writing In Style In All The King’s Men, a novel by Robert Penn Warren, the main character, Jack Burden, suffers many traumatic events. Jack causes these events himself, either directly or indirectly, yet he continually rejects such a notion. Jack, as an intelligent man, was a history and law student, a reporter, and a political operative who performed a plethora of tasks for southern demagogue Willie Stark. He used his intellect to reject the notion of self-responsibility further, theorizing several ideas of causation that determine reality, like his Great Twitch Theory and its earliest manifestations seen in his Spider Web theories. Similarly, Jack, as a person, is often obsessed with the past.
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For example, in the third sentence of the novel, “You look up the highway and it is straight for miles, coming at you, with the black line down the center coming at you and at you, black and slick and tarry-shining against the white of the slab, and the heat dazzles up from the white slab so that only the black line is clear, coming at you with the whine of the tires…” (Warren 1) is just under two hundred words alone. Warren chooses not to punctuate the sentence, other than its start and finish, because punctuation provides structure and pacing; the lack thereof feeds constant information to the reader, which produces an overwhelming feeling. Similarly, in the same quote, Warren uses a literary technique called polysyndeton to emphasize the “coming at you…coming at you and at you… coming at you…”. By repeating the phrase “coming at you”, Warren attempts to personalize the writing and nurture an even deeper connection between the reader and the characters, so that the reader undergoes the same experiences the characters do, such that the picture being painted by Jack’s memory is vividly recreated in the reader's mind, and the overwhelming repetition of a white street line coming at you is shared with the reader. The lack of punctuation conveys the mounting intensity of Jack’s thoughts and interpretation of the world. Warren also makes Jack run on when he narrates …show more content…
Jack was so obsessed with the past, to begin with, due to his rough and mysterious childhood, in which he didn’t know who his true father was, why the man he thought was his father left, and his colleagues' and friends’ deaths. Learning the reasoning behind these all provide a form of closure for him. Now satisfied with his past, he resumes his work on the Cass Mastern story, this time writing a book instead of a Ph.D. dissertation, a symbol of his closure as he is finally able to come face to face with history once again. He believes he knows enough of his past to move on, and work toward new things in the future. Similarly, earlier on in the novel, on page 467, Jack’s satisfaction with the requirement of accepting his past to move on is seen when he is speaking about his moments with Anne Stanton, “I had not understood then what I think I have now come to understand: that we can keep the past only by having the future, for they are forever tied together. Therefore I lacked some essential confidence in the world and in myself” (Warren 467.) Jack now believes that if he wants to progress in his life, if he wants to be confident in who he is, he must accept the future through his understanding that “we can keep the past only by having the future…”. Jack Burden is a changed man, who is confident in himself and his
Furthermore, situational irony is shown when Jack reflects on his experience: “Ironically, in spite of all the fear and remorse and self-loathing, being locked up in prison is where I fully realized I had to change my life for the better, and in one significant way I did” (7). Rather than pouting and feeling sorry for himself while in
Jack also engages in fights with his best friend, which at first is truly disheartening and unfair from the reader’s perspective, is later sympathized with the knowledge and understanding that it is Jacks true best shot at gaining the approval of his abusive stepfather Dwight and protecting himself. Jacks life is driven with emotional neglect and constant abuse; Dwight being the largest cause. Jack is desperate to transform himself into the masculine and happy person he wants to be, a deluded image and way of thinking that he believes will solve all his problems and hardships. Readers eventually gain the knowledge that his lies and deceit are his way of achieving this and providing him with comfort and hope as well as relief and escpae from his currently tortuous youth. ‘I couldn’t help but try to introduce new versions of myself as my interests changed, and as other versions of myself failed to persuade.’
When writing a novel authors must think not only about what they are about to write, but why they are going to write it. They have to select diction that will convey their inner thoughts and emotions. There is a need of imagery to pull the reader into the story so they will not lose their drive to read. Tone must constantly shift in order to keep the reader so engaged that they are determined to read until it all makes sense. From the longest to the shortest sentence, there is a reason -- called syntax-- why that sentence is there.
Furthermore, King emphasizes Jack’s diversion of his careless mistakes by repeatedly having Jack think to himself, “You lost your temper. You lost your temper. You lost your temper. . .” (196). Jack tries to convince himself that he did nothing wrong by consoling himself and placing the blame on his volatile anger.
I noticed that the author was using enjambment, which in this case is using small lines to show how the situation feels, with bits and pieces being shown but only what Josh is focusing on, such as the sirens and him doing CPR. even though the book is separate from Josh’s actual thoughts, it feels like the author, Kwame Alexander, is purposely skipping the punctuation, which Josh, in that specific situation, doesn’t have time
Above, on the ceiling, a relief ornament shaped of a wreath, and in the center of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out.” gives the reader a first impression of dull, boring, broken spirited. The short sentences and the commas in them force the reader to pause or break in the flow of reading, so any chance of the moment intensifying never happens. The author does this on purpose to create that more dull, boring tone in the form of simple sentences. She does this because that is just what that moment is, boring, nothing interesting is happening and that is exactly what the character is experiencing at the moment.
The moment that Joe realizes that it is dawn, the sentences begin to unfold beautiful images and paint the scene, with the conjunction “and” creating an infinite aura. The sentences containing the most examples of polysyndeton would normally be labeled “run-on sentences.” The phrases that do not utilize polysyndeton are choppy and brief and stand alone to make dramatic, joyful revelations. The reader is able to understand Joe and the reason behind his energized stream of consciousness through several instances of oxymoronic description.
(Page 241). This quote shows the thoughts that had gone through Jack’s mind before he tried to commit to the act. Jack is being told to do this, but he hears it in his father’s voice. Jack’s father had passed away when he was a child, but he could still here his father telling him to kill his son and wife. That is an example of how the Overlook affected Jack’s mind.
He knows he can’t waste any time but regardless of how he rebuilds their relationship, Kate’s life depends on him. The ‘rebel’ character archetype describes how Jack tries to change his fate. Which in reality is impossible, but he’s also time traveling.
For example, when Rostand is talking about an “avenue” (201), he uses multiple commas and phrases such as “overarched by chestnut trees, leading to the door of a chapel on the right, just visible among the branches of the tress” (201). The author writes so deeply and continuously with long sentences because he wants to get the structure and makeup of the scene exact; he wants the audience to feel like they are there in the scene with the characters. To make a point or change moods, Rostand writes short choppy sentences, but to show in -depth detail, Rostand uses long sentences and
What seemed to be the perfect person for their small group. However, Jack did not stay the same throughout this novel. He changed and slowly let the evil within him come to the outside. He turned into a savage.
This quote demonstrates how Jack's behavior becomes more animalistic and savage as the story progresses, which makes him a memorable and intriguing
”14 Jack's history with his abusive father and his own problems causes him to become a danger. Hutz also states that the transformation of Jack shows how a “child victim” transforms “into the adult abuser. ”15This makes him a source of horror as it is a realistic, seemingly uncontrollable
Wolff portrays Jack as unrepentant towards any and all of his misdeeds until the very end, and this leaves a heavy impact on his life. His guilt- and lack of guilt- lead to a failure in school and a failure in his early life. Because
The plot has merit. Part of the structure takes place in the present time highlighting Jack’s struggle through his self-imposed exile. These scenes