Connotative Diction In Mary Roach's Stiff

Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist who was known for his Darwin’s Bulldog theory based on Charles Darwin’s evolution theory, once said, “ It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a super-inducing of an artificial organization upon the natural organization of the body.” Huxley explains that because of our body, and how it works, humans have been able to find new studies. Huxley’s ideas are similarly seen in the book Stiff, by Mary Roach, which shows the readers that donating one's body involves more than just surgeons removing organs and throwing away a body. Roach shows that donating a body helps enhance further education, newer technology, and greater discoveries. Anatomical research started back in the eighteenth century, when science students could only conduct mock

Although several words in this passage may be spelt differently, they can be closely read as the same meaning. To show this, Roach uses connotative diction within the passage and the whole novel. The reader often can be found interpreting words connotatively rather than reading the text through a dictionary meaning. “ But H is different. She has made three sick people well. She has brought them extra time on earth… Cadavers like H are the dead’s heroes.” Connotative diction is shown in the way that “heroes” and “gift” are read by the reader connotatively. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “hero” refers to “a person who is greatly admired (Webster 1).” While this may be closely related to the connotative version, the reader may see the word as “a person who did something good.” This rhetorical strategy has a great effect on the book as a whole in a way that Roach often uses allows the reader to imagine things as they would like while still getting her purpose across- to donate your body to