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The One Sitting There Rhetorical Analysis

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Written post World War II, in a time when mourning soared above all else, Joanna H. Wos wrote the short story “The One Sitting There”. Written to aid her in mourning of her sister’s death due to starvation in war, Wos takes on a childlike bitterness in her writing. This bitterness stemming from her abundance of food juxtaposed with her sister’s lack of food explains her stubborn refusal to throw the food away. Wos presents a child-like tone through her syntax of telegraphic sentences. Furthermore, she discloses certain personal memories through flashback to compare the importance of food when it abounds to when it does not. Wos’ manipulation of syntax to pose a childlike tone, and her use of flashback, help convey her complex response to throwing away food that ultimately mirrors her complex response to her sister’s death. …show more content…

Her syntax generates this tone through the usage of choppy sentences, which often children will use for lack of ability to communicate better. Wos displays these telegraphic sentences when she states, “Now I had the bread. I had gotten it. I had bought it….I had earned it. It was mine to throw away” (lines 23-25). Wos’ continual use of sentences that maximize at six words, demonstrates her attempt to convey her childlike attitude at the situation. For customarily only adolescents speak in sentences that begin with the pronoun “I” and posses a single thought. Wos’ choice to begin all her sentences with “I” as well as her decision to curtail her sentences manifests her childlike syntax and therefore her childlike tone. Wos uses this specific tone to demonstrate her stubbornness in throwing away food. Which ultimately links back to anger at her sister’s death due to lack of food. Consequently Wos’ syntax presents a childlike tone, which intentionally helps to display her complex reaction over eliminating

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