Escape from Camp 14 is the true story of Shin Dong-hyuk, who is the only known person to have been born in and escape from a North Korean labor camp. After numerous interviews, the book’s author, Blaine Harden, details the reader about Shin’s life both inside and outside the camp as he assimilates into different societies. As critical information is revealed, Harden uncovers the corruption in the political landscape in North Korea. Shin’s life in Camp 14 accentuates the struggles to gain basic human freedom and elucidates food as an even more precious commodity. The straightforward diction and intriguing combination of rhetorical devices effectively expresses the brutality and oppression in the North Korean prison camp.
In How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Gloria Anzaldua uses rhetoric and personal anecdotes to convey and persuade her argument that Latin Americans are forced to relinquish their cultural heritage, and to conform to white society. The evidence she provides comes in a variety of platforms, both literal and rhetorical. Rhetorical, being through emotional, logical, and credible appeals through her text. Literal being explicitly stated, without any further analysis necessary. When she utilises the modes of appeals, they are subtle within the texts, which leads the reader to analyse as they read.
Figurative Language: The Tortilla Curtain Despite its emphasis on love and crutch – this quote describes many things about a certain “stereo type” of relationships considering how many relationships are viewed differently, and most predominantly, are different. This quotation from T.C Boyles the Tortilla Curtain, reveals the way in which a basic “stereo type” relationship is being described. “She leaned into her husband, like a sapling leaning into a rock ledge” (42). This quotation is a simile, describing and comparing a passionate relationship being viewed, to a simple sapling tree who is leaning into the rock ledge.
It is often only after a person’s death that their notebooks hold any significance for others. Notes to self, grocery and to-do lists, movie ticket stubs, all of these help for form a picture of an individual and a historical moment. But what is the value of these jottings to the individual that makes them, beyond knowing which groceries to buy? What can looking over past notebooks show and individual about themselves? In “On Keeping a Notebook,” Joan Didion uses immersive, conversational diction along with a self-deprecating tone to explore how writing shapes memory and by extension, identity.
Mark Twain, an 18th century humorist, was known for his critical and satirical writing. In one of his most famous essays, “ Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses” Twain addresses Coopers inability to realistically develop a “situation” and his failure to effectively back up his stories in order for them to be more plausible. To dramatically convey his unimpressed and sarcastic attitude, he applies biting diction, metaphors and hypophora throughout this work . By continuously using biting diction, Twain develops a mocking tone towards Fenimore Cooper’s incapability to create even the simplest of storylines. In the title of the work a sarcastic tone is evident; the word choice is utilized to reinforce the argument stating how Coopers work is an offense to the world of literature.
Slang remains a bright part of language in any era, including the
“We define our identity always in dialogue”, by Charles Taylor. Dialogue helps the reader understand the character’s more deeply, how and why they act the way they do. In the short stories, Two Kinds by Amy Tan and “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers, the characters personalities and backgrounds are expressed using dialogue. In the short story, Two Kinds, the author used dialogue to develop character’s feelings toward one another.
The human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage; However, this beast can be tamed by the simplicity of pencil to paper. When it comes to literature, words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity, the words one composes can be used constructively with words of encouragement, or destructive using words of despair, and through words, the beauteousness that is language is made. “The Outsiders” by American writer S.E Hinton is no exception as it evokes a story of a young fourteen-year-old named ponyboy who, in the novel, faces the socioeconomic status of the rival gangs—the Greasers (Ponyboys gang) and the Socs—which prevent either group from acknowledging their similarities.
The classic historical fiction book, A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens includes many examples of figurative language throughout the storyline. To start off, in chapter 4 of Book 3 many citizens in France joke about La Guillotine and mock the uses for it. The prisons fill up with innocent people who are accused unfairly and receive biased trials. In addition, La Guillotine is used frequently; hence, everyone grows familiar with it and sees La Guillotine as an everyday object. During these events, Charles Darnay is imprisoned for being an emigrant and one of many who will be sentenced to death via La Guillotine.
In the essay by Turkle, she identifies people’s personal experience with phones calls and how they feel about the topic. Towards the beginning of her essay, she indicates why it matters when she claims that when we answer phone calls, we think of it as time consuming and requiring a considerable sense of commitment. Turkle claims, “Technologies live in complex ecologies. The meaning of any one depends on what other are available… Although we still use the phone to keep up with those closes to use, we use it less outside this circle.
You can see how the others follow Alex because right after he takes the first hit at the homeless man, all three droogs join in. In the image, the other three droogs are walking with their arms down, showing that they are the
Jasper Jones Essay Jasper Jones, the iconic Australian novel, explores the main theme of morality and ethics, through a range of language techniques and conventions. As the story progresses, Silvey portrays Charlie’s constantly challenged notions of right and wrong, with the use of language techniques. The story is mainly written using first-person narrative perspective through the eyes of Charlie. Silvey exploits language conventions such as capitalization, spacing, dialogue, descriptive language, and imagery to create Charlie’s point of view and construct his thoughts on morality and ethics. Morality and ethics is a constant theme in the novel and is explored through a range of different language conventions and techniques.
If the odds are not in one’s favor, it does not mean that he or she cannot accomplish his or her goals. Sherman Alexie proved this by overcoming the barriers and the doubts to become a writer. In his essay Superman and Me Alexie conveys anyone can accomplish their goals, he does this by using the rhetorical devices anecdote, ethos, and anaphora. Alexie utilizes personal anecdotes throughout the essay to demonstrate how he has overcome the odds. In the beginning he discussed how he was introduced to reading, then conveys the extent of his effort towards reading and how it has assisted him in becoming a successful writer.
Have you ever watched a game of baseball or football in which one team is destroyed so quickly and terribly that it becomes hard to watch? The downfall of a man can often be at a speed and caliber of which is un-comprehendible and entirely devastating. The transition from “all-ruling” to complete despair is vivid and clear to witness. Many characters both in reality and works of fiction experience such crushing desperation, though some may recover the actual happening or event is unshakeable. In “Viva la vida” by Coldplay and “The count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas the author's use of diction and tone to exemplify the transition between power to powerlessness and the feeling of being forgotten and brought to nothing.
The style of which the story is being written is both descriptive and quite colorful, for example, “Um-hmm!... Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?”(Hughes pg.1) Hughes also introduces some specific languages and styles of literary devices such as repetition, hyperboles, and interjection. He also uses an exaggeration when trying to make a point, for example, “She said, ‘You a lie!’” ( Hughes pg.1 ).