Analytical Essay The characters in the book Don’t Call me Ishmael, by Michael Gerard Bauer, demonstrates the power of language and how it can build someone up, tear them down, give them confidence or leave them broken. All of the characters in the book are unique and use a diverse range of vocabulary, from the confidence of Barry Bagsley to the intelligence of James Scobie the characters use different language to achieve different things. In the story, Barry Bagsley uses his confidence to bully and make fun of Ishmael. A great example of this confidence is in chapters one to ten where Barry Bagsley is very confident that he was not going to get in trouble about the nasty comments he makes about Ishmael. In chapter five, page nineteen, Barry Bagsley says, ‘Hey, what stinks? Oh no! it’s Fishtail Le Sewer!’ The words that he uses not only damage Ishmael’s feelings but decrease his self-confidence, making Ishmael feel as if he can’t stick up for himself. The language that Barry uses sounds like he doesn’t put enough thought into what he says and that what he says doesn’t achieve anything, it just puts Ishmael and anyone else he bullies down. This proves that the language Barry uses gives him confidence but he uses that confidence to bully people. The language that James …show more content…
The bully Barry Bagsley used nasty words to hurt Ishmael, James Scobie used well-constructed sentences to defend himself, and Orazio used humour to make people laugh and Ishmael described events which took place in the book well. This proves that the statement made in the thesis that the characters in the book Don’t Call me Ishmael demonstrate the power of language and how it can build someone up, tear them down, give them confidence or leave them broken, is true using the information