Rotondaro's Back Road

Any successful author understands that in order for their narratives to be read and liked by the general public, they must be able to connect to a reader’s emotions easily and powerfully. While the reader is reading the text, their mood might vary depending on what the author writes about, and how well they convey what they want their readers to feel. Writers often evoke many types of literary elements to achieve this, including imagery, diction, and their own tone. Take, for instance, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Her books are filled with fantastical aspects, and magical happenings, but this book series would most likely not be as popular if the reader could not connect with the character’s actions and emotions on a deeper level.

While most people would take the freeways and highways, Sam “hated rushing things and insisted they take the back roads.” (Rotondaro 3), much to Joe’s agreement. During their travel on the back roads, they stopped in a small town called Dauphin Borough, where they found a miniature Statue of Liberty, and the story surrounding its existence. During and after this story, the reader most likely feels relaxed, and calm, as the pace of the story is in fact very slow and calm. The imagery in this short story is one of the most prominent reasons the reader has developed these feelings. While the story progresses to a point where Sam and Joe are travelling along the back roads, the descriptions written of what they see are very detailed and clear. For instance, they had discovered an old bridge, and they could barely see the bridge at first, but eventually saw it through “a thicket of barren trees” (Rotondaro 5). The only reason they noticed the bridge’s existence was because “a shining band of bright white light could be seen”. Adjectives such as shining and barren are words that add onto the scenery in the story. While Rotondaro could have just said trees, or light, he chose to add more descriptive detail into the story, so the reader could immerse themselves into the situation. When the reader thinks of an old bridge, and later on the Dauphin Borough Statue of Liberty,

“Winter Drive” was much more about the destination than the trip, while “Back Roads” was much more about the trip than the destination. Their moods conflict as well. Rotondaro’s style, focusing on much of the imagery around his main characters led to a clearly painted picture of the entire trip, from beginning to start. Descriptions about natural features (like the Susquehanna River) such as “branching out before them, beautiful and mighty” (Rotondaro 7) could allow the reader to truly immerse themselves into the book. This implies the reader has time to read ‘fluffy’ details about the trip, which leads to them being more relaxed. ReadWorks, on the other hand, uses word choice to present a harsh, abrupt, and rather perilous trip to the destination. In fact, while the reader is completely relaxed and absorbed into Rotondaro’s story, in “Winter Drive” they may find themselves shocked and worried about the next turn in events all throughout the trip, with powerful as well as confrontational (and somewhat upfront) language. Word choice such as “surged” and phrases such as “shuddering lightly in their icy casing” (ReadWorks 15) both cause for the reader to imagine a more vivid situation. “As both the style in which the author’s moods and the way in which they develop the mood in their story are so varying and unique in their own ways,