Salvador Late Or Early By Sandra Cisneros Analysis

Diction is an extremely important aspect of writing and it usually affects the writer’s whole story. Almost all authors utilize diction to impact the mood and tone of their writing. Diction is the choice of words or phrases that a writer intentionally chooses to influence other aspects of their story. Authors use commonly use diction to develop tone and mood in their stories. Tone is the author’s attitude towards a specific subject. Mood is how the reader is made to feel based on the writing. Both tone and mood can easily be altered by the author’s careful use of diction. In “Salvador Late or Early” and “The House on Mango Street” the author, Sandra Cisneros, utilizes strong diction by using undesirable words and phrases to develop the pessimistic

In the third paragraph, it states, “inside that forty-pound body of boy with its geography of scars, its history of hurt, limbs stuffed with feathers and rags…” (Cisneros third paragraph). The author uses diction by intentionally choosing and writing the short phrases, “geography of scars” and “history of hurt” to describe Salvador’s appearance and background. Since the author is using elaborate and depressing words to describe the character, one can see and infer by this use of diction that she feels bad for this protagonist and wants him to have a better life. Furthermore, another example where Cisneros uses diction to develop the tone of the story is in the first paragraph. Cisneros writes, “…feeds them milk and corn flakes from a tin cup in the dim dark of the morning.” (Cisneros first paragraph). In this quote, the diction displayed is “dim dark morning”. The author’s choice of words gives the reader a sense of how the writer thinks about how dreadful Salvador’s life really is, which further supports the gloomy tone of the vignette. In another short vignette, “The House on Mango Street,” also written by Sandra Cisneros, diction is once again utilized to develop the rather glum tone of the writing. In the last paragraph it states, “I

This can be seen in both of her vignettes, “Salvador Late or Early” and “The House on Mango Street”. In “Salvador Late or Early” diction is used to develop a mood of sadness and sorrow towards the main character and protagonist, Salvador. In the first paragraph Cisneros writes, “[Salvador] shakes the sleepy brothers awake, ties their shoes, combs their hair with water, feeds them milk and corn flakes from a tin cup…” (Cisneros first paragraph). This ongoing sentence of a combination of carefully chosen phrases makes the reader reflect about how difficult life is for Salvador. The phrases show how much responsibility Salvador has at such a young age. This combined with the fact that he is insecure and is scared about life in general make the reader feel caring and upset. In addition, the author also uses diction to develop the mood in the final paragraph of the vignette as well. It states, “[Salvador] Grows small and smaller to the eye, dissolves into the bright horizon, flutters into the air before disappearing like a memory of kites.” (Cisneros third paragraph). This time, the writer chose the words “dissolves,” “flutters” and “bright horizon” to develop the mood of the vignette. These words and phrases have a significant impact on the reader. They make the reader feel somewhat joyful, care-free, and peaceful, even though the majority of the story had a gloomy and upsetting mood. This may