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The Theme Of Human Condition In Bill Barich's Laughing In The Hills

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There are many aspects of the human condition that are universal to all of humankind. How people live their lives and how they grow and change from problems are both essential concepts in understanding the human condition in its entirety. In long fiction, authors, such as Bill Barich in Laughing in the Hills, often use imagery, syntax, diction, and/or plot to illustrate a theme via the universality of human condition.
In the opening paragraph of his aforementioned novel, Barich suggests a thematic concept of fear. His appropriate use of imagery contributes much to this illustration. “Mountains giving way to flatlands,” (Barich 3) symbolizes how a heart monitor would look when someone dies. This is undoubtedly an intentional reference on Barich’s …show more content…

In lines 13 and 14, he uses a polysyndetic listing to emphasize “all that she’d miss in the future if her chemotherapy treatments failed” (Barich 14). The use of the words “if” and “in the future” imply the idea that she is afraid of dying, which is why Barich chose to syntactically emphasize the phrase. Similarly, he uses two asyndetic lists in lines 20 to 23 to emphasize “raking over the dead grass in the yard,” (Barich 21) and “bringing tears to our eyes,” (Barich 23). The word “dead” in the first phrase is unnecessary to the plot, but Barich uses it to place further emphasis on the fact that the mother is dying. Both phrases also help to create a fearful mood for the reader. In addition, a telegraphic sentence is used towards the beginning of the paragraph to place emphasis on the concept of fear. “He was right,” (Barich 5) refers to how the son did not recognize his mother because of the disease. This short sentence interrupts the flow of the paragraph and makes it clear to the reader that the son’s mother was, without a doubt, unrecognizable to him and his father. Indeed, it represents the emotions of the characters, the unvarnished seriousness of the mother’s disease, the empathy that the family feels for her, how afraid they are that their mother is not who she used to

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