John Freyworth Analysis

The purpose in which we write has a tendency to affect the tone and style in which we write. A man named John Freyer started a project called All My Life for Sale in which he sold most of his belongings by means of ebay. His ebay posts are an exemplary example of how impactful and important a mix of subjective and objective details is when describing an object. An item that particularly stuck out to me was one titled “Fine Yellow Shoes”, in which the description tells us about how Freyer came to own them and where he had taken them. On ebay I was able to find a brilliantly yellow pair of ballroom shoes that were a bit similar to the ones from Freyer’s project. The descriptions for the two pairs of shoes were written in two very different writing

Freyer used a mix of subjective and objective details in his descriptions, which made each item feel personal and showed how each and every single item was meaningful and had the potential to make an impact. It also gave a small glimpse into the history of the item personifying it in a way. The description became less of a description and more of a story that depicted a bright future for yourself if you were lucky enough to land your hands on the item. For the “Fine Yellow Shoes” the description told us about how he got them, how he wore them, where he wore them, and how he viewed them. In Freyer’s description of the shoes he adds in some zany humor stating that they were the wrong size for him making them extremely uncomfortable, but he looked “rather dapper in them”. This humor and tone makes it evident that Freyer’s goal in writing the description is to persuade a spirited, cheerful individual to buy his “fine yellow shoes” in a manner in which that individual can picture himself in them.In the ebay post for the yellow ballroom shoes the description was very dry and objective. It simply stated the facts like size, color, and production time. This approach is effective in getting the basic and necessary information across to a potential buyer, but it does nothing to entice them or tell them about how the product will impact them. This indicates that the writer of the ebay post’s audience is someone who has a more serious demeanor and/or prefers things to be straightforward, as the description is in a bullet-point list format which is easier to read when looking for specific information. In both John Freyer’s description of the shoes and ebay’s the purpose can be boiled down to giving the necessary information that a buyer would need in