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Literary Analysis: A Study in Short Bursts – Week 33

4/29 - Tone / We went with sandwiches, thick, poor-man’s ham from Aldi’s supermarket, slapped onto wheat bread and slathered with a thin film of mayonnaise.
Mawi Asgedom, Of Beetles & Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard
Consider:
1.  What is the speaker’s attitude toward the sandwiches?
2.  How did you figure out the speaker’s attitude toward the sandwiches?
Now you try it: Write a sentence which expresses your attitude toward a great dinner you’re recently eaten. Don’t explain your attitude. Instead, use diction and detail to show your attitude toward the meal.
4/28 - Irony / We divide the world in columns
When we stick to our own kind.
We nurture our suspicions,
Keep our stereotypes in line.
We have to keep our distance
So we’ve another kind to blame.
How come,
If we’re so different,
We both react the same?
Sara Holbrook, “Major Differences,” Walking on the Boundaries of Change: Poems of Transition
Consider:
1.  Several of the lines say one thing, but they mean quite the opposite. In other words, they’re IRONIC. What do the lines say, and what do the lines mean?
2.  How would the impact of the poem change if we rewrote the last stanza like this?
We shouldn’t keep our distance
Nor stick to our own kind.
Because
It’s not so helpful
And builds a narrow mind.
Now you try it: Write a stanza of poetry about the importance of green vegetables. In your stanza, don’t come right out and give your opinion. Instead, use irony (not sarcasm) to convey your ideas. Use Holbrook’s poem as a model.
4/27 – Figurative Language / I was seven, I lay in the car
watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.
Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,” Words Under the Words: Selected Poems
Consider:
1.  What is the metaphor in this poem? What is the literal term? What is the figurative term? What does the metaphor mean?
2.  How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if Nye said simply, My stomach really hurt?
Now you try it: Rewrite the figurative term in Nye’s metaphor. Try to express feelings of anxiety and pain – both physical and emotional – with your metaphor.
My stomach was ______.
4/26 - Detail / She’s this wrinkled old bat with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath, but it was right after lunch and she kept burpin’ little bursts of garlic.
Sharon M. Draper, Tears of a Tiger
Consider:
1.  Look at the following rewriting of Draper’s sentences: She’s an old woman with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath, but I couldn’t get away from her.
Which one is more alive and engrossing? Which one brings you into the scene? Why?
2.  Sketch a little picture of the scene. What details are in your sketch? Why are they memorable?
Now you try it: Write two sentences about someone you want to sit next to. Use Draper’s sentences as a model, substituting positive details for the negative ones.
4/25 - Syntax / He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on.
Lois Lowry, The Giver
Consider:
1.  What is the purpose of the colon in this sentence?
2.  How would it change the effectiveness of the sentence if we rewrote it like this: He found that he was often irrationally angry at his groupmates because they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on.
Now you try it: Write a sentence which uses a colon to connect important ideas. The words which follow the colon should explain and emphasize the words that come before the colon. Begin your sentence this way: “Tonya found that she was much happier now: …”