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The Poisoner's Handbook Chapter 2 Summary

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Chapter 2 of The poisoner’s handbook by Deborah Blum has an aggressive style. Elements of diction support this style. Some of the elements that support the style are connotation/ denotation, cacophonous, and monosyllabic/polysyllabism. Connotation and denotation help to show the aggressive style of the writing in chapter 2. When describing mustard gas, Blum states the its effect include “searing the eyes into a crusted blindness” (Blum, 2010). The connotation of searing gives the reader a violent image of the agony that the mustard gas victim is going through. one may think of flesh bubbling and burning, attributing to the aggressive style of writing. Its denotation is equally brutal. Searing literal definition is to burn or scorch painfully or in a way that causes injury. Once again, the act of searing contributes to the aggressive style. Cacophony is …show more content…

While researching Wood Alcohol, Gettler told doctors “This is poison. Warn everyone. do it now” (Blum, 2010). all of the monosyllabic words in this series of sentences bring attention to the message being conveyed. He is trying to warn people, plain and simple. His tone is an assertive and aggressive one do to the lack of polysyllabic words in this series of sentences. a sense of urgency is also created, giving the story excitement. Polysyllabism is used throughout the chapter describing characters and the processes in which the poison is analyzed such as in the “process of distillation and oxidation” (Blum, 2010). This gives the reader an accurate and detailed description of what the author is trying to convey, making it easier for the author to show urgency in other situations. Deborah Blum uses elements of diction to support the aggressive style of her story. some elements used by Blum are connotation/ denotation, cacophonous, and monosyllabic/ polysyllabism. this style can easily be supported by other elements as

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