Open By Andre Agassi Analysis

Many youngsters can have a hard time understanding parents and other people who belong to elder generations and the other way around. This can have something to do with the time we are born in and our mentality along with our way of thinking. This may be the topic in the extract from Andre Agassi’s autobiography “Open” from 2009, where it focuses on the relationships between the generations. But why exactly are the characters from the different generations having such a hard time understanding each other? And why has Andre written this text? When analysing the text’s style of writing, it is interesting to look at the structure of it. The text has a very common structure that implies a by-line, which is followed by the headline, Open. Subsequently comes the body part which is formed in two columns and includes a picture of Andre’s father, Mike, on the third page. It is written in first person, since it is based on the writer, which is normal for

1 ll. 1-2: “My father’s mother lives with us. She’s a nasty old lady from Tehran…” Agassi uses the word nasty to describe his old grandmother which is informal, negative and also slang. However, it gives us as readers an impression of an informal language and makes us expect a simple choice of words, considering that he uses it at the beginning. To sustain the fact that the writer, Andre Agassi, uses an informal style, it is interesting to look at the word on P. 4 l. 239: “Boo!” The word boo is an onomatopoeia, as the word imitates the sound that is similar to the noise. This does also characterize an informal and low style. The style of writing connects perfectly to the receiver who probably are people that are interested in tennis and does not need to be well educated and academic, this can be the reason behind the simple and the variety of formal and informal