Doctors are infamous for their unreadable writing; Richard Selzer is not one of those doctors. A talented surgeon, Selzer has garnered critical acclaim for his captivating operating room tales, and rightfully so. A perfect exhibition of this is The Knife, a detailed illustration of a surgery. What may seem like an uninteresting event is made mesmerizing by Selzer’s magnificent account of the human body and the meticulousness that goes into repairing it. The rhetorical appeals, tone, and figurative language that Selzer uses throughout The Knife provide the reader with a vivid description of the sacred process of surgery.
Organ donations from one donor can save up to eight lives, and also change the lives of more than fifty people (“Facts About Organ Donation”). What is simply baffling about this statistic is the fact that most people usually don’t consider that something like organ donation could be that impactful. However, in Mary Roach’s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, she explores the relevance of this process, as well as many other topics associated with the scientific study of cadavers. The purpose that Roach is trying to convey in this novel is to persuade the audience to think about the impact cadavers have had in history, as well as in the world today, and to consider the options she provides as to what can be done with the human body after
Mitford takes note that “not one in ten thousand has an idea of what actually takes place” (310) and there is so much more beneath the surface of things. Mitford also uses oxymorons such as, “he has done everything in his power to make the funeral a real pleasure for everybody” (314). It’s clear that a funeral isn’t a “pleasure”, it’s an incredibly sad experience (for most people) and it just goes to show the depth Mitford will go to portray her aggressive opinions. As Mitford continues to describe the shocking details about embalming she gets into a routine and systematically gives us disconcerting imagery every other paragraph, such as, a corpse “whose mouth had been sewn together” (312). Mitford’s style is informative and she doesn’t shy away from being brutally open by using unsettling imagery, which once again makes her case even
Writers use strategies in personal essays to make a connection to readers. Even though readers aren’t necessarily right next to the writer, writers write their personal essays as if the reader were there. They are able to reveal their deepest thoughts within their writing, as readers can relate to it. Phillip Lopate states the importance of strategies in his anthology, “The Art of the Personal Essay.” In his anthology, Lopate mentions that the use of strategies used in personal essays are similar; however, those strategies can portray different themes that the author doesn’t state.
Jessica Mitford’s tone in “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” is facetious. The first sentence of the first paragraph and the second sentence in the second paragraph really give away the tone. The first sentence begins with “ the drama begins to unfold…” There is not really any drama because it is just a corpse, and there should not be humor when dealing with death.
I would have never thought about what my body could be used for after my death. In Stiff, written by Mary Roach, we learn about all the ways cadavers are used in Science. With this information, Roach persuades us to have an open mind about donating our bodies by informing us in an entertaining way. Throughout the book, Roach picks interesting stories in the history of cadavers to share with her readers.
In her 1967 essay Behind The Formaldehyde Curtain, Jessica Mitford utilizes the rhetorical devices of diction and verbal irony to illustrate the unthinkable, little-known truth behind the North American funeral industry and its manipulation of death. Through her choice of diction used when describing the process of an embalmment, Mitford shows us the horrifying and questionable truth behind it, prompting us to question the American funeral industry's ethicality. In the 9th paragraph, Mitford states during an embalmment, the blood of the deceased person "is drained out through the veins”. The word “drained” could’ve easily been replaced with “removed” or “extracted”, both of them being more suitable and correct terms, but the author chose it because it has a negative
In many literary classics, we see many uses of literary devices, usually to portray or enhance a theme of the book. In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, there are many themes and many devices to depict them. But the narration/POV of different characters serves to affect the reader’s perspective, especially on the theme of family and honor- or lack thereof.
Waiting on every exhausting whim of an 18 year old preserved corpse sounds absurd and impossible, but for H.P. Lovecraft’s first person narrator in “Cool Air” it is a shocking reality. The strategic application of first person point of view keeps the reader on edge with a limited view. Any other point of view would reveal too much information on the pivotal Doctor Muñoz, and not allow access to the narrator's thoughts and emotions. First person point of view in H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” connects the reader to the emotions of the narrator and keeps critical plot information a mystery.
Personification allows the readers to see the world from the house’s persepctive, helping them relate to the house on a personal level. Unlike Hirsch, who directs most of his focus towards the emotional state of the house, Hopper uses indirect forms of communication(e.g. shading, color, shapes and atmosphere) to help readers draw inferences about the house. For instance, the shadow casting the house sets a depressing mood for the painting. The darkness overshadowing the brightness implies that the house attracts no one despite its desire for visitors. Hopper’s emphasis on the shadow sets the mood for the picture, allowing us to visualize the depressing aura of the house.
Anne Fadiman’s “Under Water” strikingly relates a particularly morbid, yet surreal experience: the death of a teen, Gary, in a freak canoeing accident. From writing about this particular incident, Fadiman reflects her own development and maturation as a person, from an “impatient” person to one who is “no longer in a hurry.” However, in a more general sense, the essay also deals with how people react to death. In the seventh paragraph of “Under Water,” Fadiman’s use of personification and the use of a metaphor describing the body of Gary highlights how individuals insistently attempt to detach themselves from death, refusing to accept the truth of the situation, ultimately damaging themselves in the process.
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Stevens’ “The Emperor of Ice Cream” all successfully comment on the nature of death, while differing in their discussion of character development, language, and motifs. The first text, As I Lay Dying, deals with how the Bundren family reacts to the death of the female family head, Addie Bundren. The second text, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, focuses on how the protagonist of the play, Hamlet, deals with the death of his father and his uncle’s usurpation of the throne. Finally, the poem, “The Emperor of Ice Cream”, describes a wake and what is going on surrounding the casket, including people’s reactions to the event. These similar focuses of death help to unveil the profounder meaning of each text, which are revealed by the discussion of action vs. inaction, the role of women, and the process of moving on after a death.
Throughout the novel Tuesday’s With Morrie, the author, Mitch Albom, reflects on his Tuesday meetings with his old professor, now consumed with a terminal illness, and, using many rhetorical choices, reveals “The Meaning of Life,” which they discussed profusely and divided into several categories. Topics such as Death, Emotions, Aging, Money, Culture, and more are all discussed in their weekly conferences, Morrie passing his wisdom on to one of his favor students. And Albom, writing about their talks, uses numerous rhetoric devices to discuss this wisdom. As Morrie Schwartz, dying of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), speaks with Albom, the two talk about Death.
Ernest J. Gaines as a Storyteller In order to be successful as an author and engage readers effectively, one must incorporate certain elements. Ernest J. Gaines included multiple stylistic elements in his novel, “A Lesson Before Dying”, therefore, he is quite effective as a storyteller. One rhetorical device included in the novel was metaphor. Another device Gaines used in “A Lesson Before Dying” was personification.
Suzanne Berne starts out describing Ground Zero with the sense of the moist air of the earl spring season in New York City. She finds a large crowd of people from various nations waiting patiently in line. In the third paragraph, her symbolic description captures our attention when she describes the following: “Nothing is what it first looked like, the space that is now ground zero. But once your eyes adjust to what you are looking at, "nothing" becomes much more potent, which is absent. " Berne expresses her emotional feelings revealed through this paragraph.
