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Powerful Word Usage In Robert Stone's Helping

523 Words3 Pages

In “Helping,” by Robert Stone, he uses short phrases with powerful word usage to develop the story and the characters within. For instance, he says “In the white silences, Elliot could hear the boards of his house contract and feel a shrinking in his bones (Stone 410.)” In this sentence, we know that in his house it's very quiet. He could have just said silent, but using the description that it is white silent seems to emphasize just how quiet it really is and what Elliot was hearing. Stone also describes his characters subtly, by making it embedded in the story. He explains one of his clients as, “Blankenship had red hair, a brutal face, and a sneaking manner (Stone 410.)” He introduces just a piece of what this character looks like and then later on a little bit more when talking about the character. …show more content…

He doesn’t have to use long descriptive sentences to accomplish this, he does it in a few words or one sentence. For example, he explains what he sees, “On the far side of the double-glazed windows, the day was darkening as expected snow storm gathered (Stone 414).” He then goes more into detail how it feels outside to his character, allowing the reader to sense what the character feels. “There was no wind, but the motionless air stung; the metal frames of his glasses burned his skin (Stone 416).” From this one sentence, we can conclude that it is extremely cold outside to where the metal stings his

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