On Seeing England For The First Time Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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In the passage, “On Seeing England for the First Time,” the author, Kincaid, uses different stylistic and rhetorical devices to convey her perception and attitude towards England. She shifts from glorifying England to making it sounds like a piece of trash on the ground. The two devices that were highly enforced in this passage were tone and repetition, with these two devices Kincaid made her statement clear of how she felt about England. In the beginning Kincaid begins her passage by stating she was just a child when she first laid eyes on England. “The England I was looking at was laid out on a map quietly, beautifully, delicately, a very special jewel; it lay on a bed of sky blue..,” (Page 364, paragraph 1) states how mesmerized Kincaid was by her first impression of England. Her diction of adjectives that describe how England looked makes England sound glorified, “beautifully, delicately, a very special jewel…” Kincaid’s tone is settle/calm at this moment, but later gets into detail how she now views England. “England was a special jewel all right, and only special …show more content…

The word England is mentioned repeatedly throughout the whole passage. For example, “ The shoes I were made in England; so were my socks and cotton undergarments and the satin ribbons I wore tied at the end of two plaits of my hair.” (Page 365, paragraph 2) By using repetition the author was able to provide a clear emphasis of the importance of the meaning of England in her life. The second quote that I used was “…because no test we would ever take would be complete without this statement: “Draw a map of England.” (Page 367, paragraph 3) This is another quote that provides evidence as to how Kincaid uses the word England more than once to portray her perception of England descriptively. Lastly, the repetition makes the argument stronger; the argument that the reality of England was very different from the belief engraved in her