“There is a lot of talk these days about dysfunctional families. These are families that simply don't work, that are troubled in one way or the other. They do more harm than good, we are told, and they are a blight on our time. From all the hype about families lately, one might think they are a fairly new thing.” This quote from The All Too Human gods, written by Rebecca Christian and Linda Mazunik, an elucidative piece about the Greek and roman gods being a dysfunctional family shows that even the best of people can be imperfect. The theme in this expository piece is that no one is perfect. The tone in this expository piece affects the theme because it shows the author's purpose, demonstrates the author’s attitude, and helps us understand the mood of the story.
are all ways a writer can make a reader feel a certain mood. Setting and diction were used in these stories. It’s interesting how an author can change the way someone thinks about something by using one of these elements in their writing. If the character's in “Back Roads” never came across the fascinating river or statute, the reader would most likely be very bored with the story. And if the character in “A Winter’s Drive” never found the box he was looking for, there wouldn’t be an anxious feeling at all because what would the reader have to look forward to in the story? These elements make up the text, and without them, there would be no point in reading because there would probably be no
Literary elements are like weather, they are always there and add more to the book like excitement or suspense.they also give the book a little more interesting instead of something being always the exact same. figurative language can be compared to rainy, sunny, and snowy weather “Ashes” is a short story that features the protagonist Ashleigh struggles inside to help her dad as well to do the right thing. Susan Beth Pfeffer’s short story “Ashes” included many different literary elements such as figurative language, theme, and conflict.
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.... Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live” (32). Never shall we forget the atrocious events that happened to upwards of six million Jews during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a genocide run by Adolf Hitler to exterminate nearly a whole population of Jews and very few prisoners lived to tell their treacherous stories. Night, an autobiography that was written by Elie Wiesel, is from his perspective as a prisoner. The book focuses on Wiesel and his father experiencing the torture that the Nazis put them through, and the unspeakable events that Wiesel witnessed. The author, Wiesel, was one of the handfuls of survivors to be able to tell his time about the appalling incidents that occurred during the Holocaust. That being the case, in the memoir Night, Wiesel uses somber descriptive diction, along with vivid syntax to portray the dehumanizing actions of the Nazis and to invoke empathy to the reader.
For instance, the author’s use of word choice illustrates a tone of fear. In the lighthouse, the lantern flame dies out, “plunging Josan into darkness” (3). Bray uses the word “plunging” to portray the sudden absence of light. Furthermore, the reader is kept on edge because of the antisipitation of what will happen in the dark. Josan shakes with fear and “[h]is hand tremble[s]” as he tries to relight the wick (9). Patricia Bray deliberately chooses the word trembled to illustrate the terror in Josan. Josan is petrified of the shipwreck that will be caused in the lack of light. Josan is so concerned for the safety of the ships he “[can]
Connell uses foreshadowing to create suspense throughout the story. The first instance of foreshadowing is right in the third paragraph. As Rainsford and Whitney are chatting on the boat, on their way to a hunting trip, Whitney points out an island. Whitney says about the island “ ‘The old charts call it Ship-Trap Island...suggestive name isn’t it?’ (15)”. He shows obvious dread of the island in his conversation with Rainsford. These statements foreshadow Rainsford getting trapped on the island. They make the readers feel uneasy about the island and fear for Rainsford and the rest of the crew which builds suspense. Another instance of foreshadowing in “The Most Dangerous Game” happens when Zaroff and Rainsford are having their conversation at supper. When Rainsford asks if Zaroff hunts cape buffalo, Zaroff states “ ‘[No,] I hunt more dangerous game’ (17)”. This foreshadows him revealing that he hunts men. This builds suspense because the reader doesn’t know yet what this “dangerous game” is, but they know it probably isn’t good. The author utilizes
People have beliefs that short stories are narrated by people who are reliable. However, unreliable narrators are people who are telling the story in their own way. The three stories, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and Strawberry Spring by Stephen King. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is unreliable because she cannot determine reality from hallucinations and cannot express herself because she is dominated by her role as a woman.
Life is fleeting and time moves quickly. In the blink of an eye, childhood becomes only a memory and the difficulties of the world become a factor of everyday life. E.B. White reflects on his earlier years in his personal essay “Once More to the Lake,” a detailed account of his childhood memories with his father at the lake. He carries on the father-son tradition by bringing his own son out to the lake, experiencing flashbacks to his youth. White lost his sense of self, as he began identifying himself as his son, feeling as though he was back at the lake with his father. This trip changed White’s outlook on life, for he finally realized that mortality was closer than he imagined. He was no longer young, and watching his son mature only made this notion more real. One day, he will be only a memory to his son, just like his father is to him. White uses a variety of rhetorical devices to convey the message to his audience that life moves quickly, not stopping for anything, including emotionally-charged diction, imagery, and personification.
Throughout “Incarnations of Burned Children”, David Foster Wallace uses symbolism, diction and syntax to foreshadow the story’s ending. The subtlety of Wallace’s symbolism is not revealed until the baby’s life concludes. There are two major items that resemble a bigger meaning in the story. For example,the author constantly mentions a hanging door which symbolizes the child’s fate. The Daddy constantly tries to fix the door as well as his son’s fate. When the door is hanging half off its hinges, it resembles the parallel between life and death. This comparison is evident when the child is rushed to the ER and doesn't make it, and the author says, “the hinge gave”. Wallace uses the door multiple times throughout the story to foreshadow the death of the baby. The bird is mentioned as another symbol and represents nature as a whole. The author tries to explain that no matter what’s going on in someone’s personal life, nature and the world around them will continue. In the story the bird saw everything that was going on, it, “appeared to observe the door”, but the bird didn’t do anything about it. Instead, it continued its daily life as if nothing happened.
In the story “Sagittarius” by Greg Hrbek, there are descriptive phrases that set the mood. They are important because they give the reader an explanation of what's going on with the characters. They're also important because it gives a specific perspective to the reader and helps their imagination. The story is about a family that deals with a deformed child with four legs.The section of the story that stood out to me the most is when the father comes home to his son standing, even with his condition because it gives you the dad's opinion about his son,what his problem is, and it makes you feel a certain way about the character.
In the three passages written by Poe (The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado), their settings contribute to their mood and to their tone. Poe chose the settings of his passages very wisely. He always thought about how they would affect the story and what role they would play in the reader 's understanding of the mood and/or the tone. The setting in each of these passages is different, However they are also somewhat alike. So the mood and the tone of the three passages (The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado) have similar aspects, however they also have some different ones, simultaneously.
used as an object of the verb or proposition of male person or animal previously mentioned as the subject of the clause.
In “The Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards both have a similar yet different style of writing and delivery.however Edwards gave more detail to make to his sermon which made it more effective than Hawthorne were his was of an inference to the theme. Edwards and Hawthorne diction was archaic, the themes of the texts was that everyone is a sinner whether a black veil is upon a face or hanging from the hand of God.
In the paragraph above, Ray Bradbury showcased his craft and syntax. For example, he used numerous advanced vocabulary words such as cravat, hemp, interminably, and excruciate. Additionally, Ray Bradbury utilized a variety of compound adjectives in the description of Mr. Dark: sun-yellow, boar-bramble, clock-spring, ever-trembling, ever-glistening, tweed-thorns, moon-calm, and itch-weed. Furthermore, the use of compound adjectives provided a more vivid description within the paragraph. Moreover, Bradbury wrote sentences with varied construction and complexity. For example, he used commas to set apart appositive phrases. In the second sentence, Bradbury wrote, “His pale face, lunar pockmarks denting it, cast light” (Bradbury 73). In addition, he wrote multiple compound and complex sentences. Furthermore, commas in a series were used throughout the entire paragraph. In the passage, the fifth sentence contained commas in a series and was also a complex sentence. Creatively, the sentence length was varied as some sentences contained six words while others were made of over twenty words. Overall, the author’s craft was made evident by the syntax.
The book, Percy Jackson: The Battle Of The Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan is an amazing book about a group of demigods (half human half god) that have to save their camp from being destroyed by the evil forces of Kronos. Kronos is a titan that the gods banished to the deepest part of the underworld (Tartarus) after a war against them. Now that the titans are rising once again, the protagonists must travel through an ancient Labyrinth to stop them from demolishing their camp and temporarily halt them from achieving their goal of destroying Mount Olympus and the gods.