Kivari 2
Jessi Kivari
Mr. Gragg
AP Language/Composition
2 October 2012
Readings and Their Tropes and Schemes
“Shooting Dad” / “Champion of the World” / “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” / “The Meaning of a Word”Subject / Valuing differences / Pride / Acceptance / Connotation of words
Audience / Along with writing this piece for her father, Sarah Vowell directed her descriptive narrative to young adults who think of differences as a negative quality. / Because this passage is taken from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, one can say that Maya Angelou’s specific audience is young adults; but the piece could also be for whites when the Civil Rights Movement had just ended in 1969; this piece was written in 1970. / Author Dave Barry not only targets his essay directly to wife, but to other woman who tend to make men more feminine or other people who seek change where change will most likely not happen. / It is implied that Gloria Naylor, the author, writes directly to young, immature adults who have known the word nigger to be derogatory.
Purpose / Vowell’s prime purpose is to explain to her young audience that differences bring out the best in in people, and that one should value and appreciate that. Vowell excellently supports her purpose with father/daughter examples, helping her audience understand more clearly that opposites attract. / The purpose of Angelou writing this section is to inform readers how racial discrimination did not prevent people (mainly African Americans) from feeling good about them. Joe Louis, the “champion of the world,” caused blacks to be proud of their heritage and race, instead of embarrassed. / Barry main purpose in is to describe the differences in men and woman in order to illustrate that one should accept contrasting features between different sexes instead of searching for change. He is encouraging his audience to stop changing what will probably never change. / Naylor’s purpose is to define the word nigger in order to support her argument on the connotation of words. Throughout her moving essay, Naylor stresses that words are meaningless until one changes the value of the words.
Tone / Witty and understanding / Candid, but proud / Witty, yet subjective / Candid and communicative
Tropes / “Civil War battleground…house was partitioned off into territories” (130-131), “The sound it made was as big as God” (132), “My dad finished his most elaborate tool of death yet” (133). (Metaphor, simile, euphemism) / “Some bitter comedian” (87), “If the Brown Bomber’s victory was a particular bloody one…” (87), “People drank Coca-Colas like ambrosia and ate like Christmas” (88). (Antithesis, epithet, simile) / “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out” (203), “This can lead to tragedy, as it did in…Pompeii” (203),
“…Always get letters from woman who…could crush mu skull like a ripe grape” (204). (Metaphor/Pun, Allusion, Simile) / “I’ve managed to keep the wolf away from the door” (388), “The debate…That battle is doomed” (388), “We order reality” (388). (metaphor, metaphor, and hyperbole)
Schemes / “Amy shared our father’s enthusiasm for firearms…I tended to daydream though Dad’s activities” (132), “If I was ever going to understand his most ballistic bee in his bonnet…” (134), “I will pack…I will go…I will plunge…I will light the fuse” (135). (Juxtaposition, alliteration, anaphora) / “Mood was shot through…as a black sky is streaked with lightning” (86), “It was out people…it was another lynching…it was hounds…it was a white woman slapping her maid” (87), “We were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and unlucky” (88). / “She gives me this look…same look that she uses on me” (204),
“…Men tend to feel…and woman tend to be” (204), “We could not focus our attention…like that story by Edgar Allen Poe” (204). (Epistrophe, parallelism, circumlocution) / “In the singular the word was applied…in some situation for his strength” (389), “Parents who…drunken couple who…people who…were all ‘trifling niggers’” (390), “…Used in direct address and regardless of the gender doing the addressing” (390). (Alliteration, Parallelism, Assonance)
Analysis / All the quotes support the saying: Sarah Vowell was exceedingly different from her father, but in the end valued the difference. Vowell asserts through her battleground metaphor, that differences between her and her dad have always occurred. She doesn’t enjoy using guns so purposely exaggerates and compares the shot of a small pistol to the power of God. Vowell provides another example of a trope (euphemism) when describing a cannon. Vowell, being so unlike her dad, describes the cannon as a terrible, terrible machine, wrapping back to the idea that Vowell differs greatly from her father. Vowell mentions her sister in order to show great juxtaposition between her and her sister when learning about firearms. Vowel remains uninterested in such objects, until the end. There, she humorously adds how she will do countless services for her father when he is died, one of them firing him from a cannon, and thus, adding to the cheerful tone. / Maya Angelou displays a truthful, but proud tone. She wants to tell a story in which African Americans have proven to be “as good as” whites. To help her support her purpose and maintain a strong tone, Angelou sets up a gloomy atmosphere with an antithesis of a comedian. One visualizes a comedian to be entertaining and friendly; but when the audience reads “bitter comedian,” they will visualize the beginning serious tone. A character named Joe Louis goes by the name “Brown Bomber” because of the idea the Angelou wanted to draw special attention to African American pride. Angelou makes her characters feel extremely pleased with the boxing outcome to stress the point that blacks had something to be proud of when discrimination was common. Angelou uses symbolism as a scheme to symbolize that the streak of lightning is hope for Americans, and that hope will eventually bring pride. By using forms of repetition, Angelou interests her audience while addressing the her overall purpose and candid tone. / Dave Barry writes a highly descriptive piece with a pun, simile, allusions, epistrophe, parallel structure, and circumlocution. A metaphor/pun is used for the title encourages people to read Barry’s compare and contrast of men and woman. With that title, Barry already begins his argument: men try to clean up, or do as woman, but in the end they strike out and end up actually being a guy. Barry continues supporting his purpose by alluding to Pompeii and then comparing its disasters to those of men and woman. The simile, epistrophe, and parallel structure all provide examples on the idea that men and woman are increasingly different, thus backing Barry’s idea. The circumlocution is a definite example on how well men contrast from woman. Barry explains sports and to watch them is a must-do, for men. Barry describes the Tell-Tale Heart, but doesn’t actually say it, making the overall paragraph enjoyable and easy to connect to with a witty tone. / Gloria Naylor places heavy emphasis on the connotation of the word nigger; and for support, she incorporates metaphors, an alliteration, hyperbole, parallel structure, and assonance. The tropes create visual pictures for the Naylor’s audience, images that will help her audience understand what is being said more clearly. One can image a prolonged, heated debate on the meaning of words. By comparing the debate to a to a wolf or a battle and over exaggerating it, Naylor draws in her audience while still portraying a neutral tone. Naylor uses forms of repetition to come back to the idea that words are utterly useless meaning is given to them. She sets her essay up in a way where repetition supports her purpose, subject, tone, and ultimately draws her audience in.
Works Cited
Angelou, Maya. “Champion of the World.” 1970. The Brief Bedford Reader. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
Barry, Dave. “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out.” 1988. The Brief Bedford Reader. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
Burton, Gideon. “The Forest of Rhetoric.” Silva Rhetoricae. Brigham Young University, n.d. Web. 28 Sep 2012. <http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silvs.htm>.
Naylor, Gloria. “The Meaning of a Word.” 1986. The Brief Bedford Reader. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
Vowell, Sarah. “Shooting Dad.” 2000. A Brief Bedford Reader. Boston: Beford/St. Martin’s, 2003.