Katherine Weber Use Of Diction In Sleeping

Throughout one’s life, there is a constant and harsh reality, that one will constantly deal with loss and grief. This encounter with loss causes people to go far out of their way in order to cope with their loss, and this fact is demonstrated in “Sleeping” by Katharine Weber. In “Sleeping,” by Katharine Weber, the Winters are characterized as offputting and mysterious, through the employment of ominous diction, and auditory imagery, ultimately demonstrating the drastic measures one will take when confronted with loss. Through the use of dismal diction, Weber illustrates the eeriness of the Winter’s house, proving how the Winters’ have shifted as a result of their loss. In literature, diction is a device primarily used to convey emotions,

By convention, babysitting is a more upbeat job, however, Harriet spends “Two hours of reading all of the boring mail piles neatly on a desk in the bedroom and looking through a depressing wedding album,” (Weber 1). The specific words such as boring and depressing, conveys the thought that the Winter’s house embodies the inverse of emotion due to the fact that normally, a wedding album would display more of upbeat and cheerful emotions. This inverse of normality is due to the loss the Winter’s have experienced, which causes them and their house to magnify the lack of emotion they have after dealing with the loss of their child. Furthermore, this lack of emotion is further demonstrated by the actions the Winter’s take to deal with this grief. The Winter’s prevented Harriet from entering the baby’s room due to the chance she would wake the baby up, but “Harriet turned the knob on the baby’s door very tentatively, but it seemed locked. She didn’t dare turn the knob with more

When a family has a baby, their house is typically bussling with loud noises, such as crying, laughing, or playing. This is the opposite in the Winter’s household, due to the fact that when Harriet went to check on the baby, she “tried to hear the sound of a baby breathing but she couldn’t hear anything,” (Weber 1). The auditory imagery of listening to a baby breathing further demonstrates this idea of the Winter’s house being the inverse of normal emotions, where normally, their house with a baby would be full of noise. Harriet makes note of this, however, when the Winter’s get home, “They gave her too much money and didn't ask her about anything. Mrs. Winter seemed to be waiting for her to leave before checking on the baby. Mr. Winter drove her home in silence.” (Weber 2). This environment devoid of audio continuously displays how the Winter’s are off putting, and exposes the irrational measures they went to to deal with grief, such as hiring a babysitter for a non-existent baby. The Winter’s being silent in the end presents the idea that they want to avoid coming face to face with their