Getting up to date with: Frederick Douglass Reponse

In his autobiography Frederick Douglas tactfully persuades his critics- that being his white, Northern and slave owning readership. Douglass's method of persuasion became his honest, straight-forward narrative that revisits his past as a slave. Not only does Douglass avoid the use of highly emotional content, but also avoids criticizing or stating his own personal commentary on Northerners and instead, provides a detailed account of slave life. Douglass gained credibility among his white readership through demonstrating qualities of honesty and trust within the narrative. for example, Douglass is careful to note his respect of the privacy of the mentioned in the course of the text. Aside from making a case for his credibility and truth telling, by sharing details like this Douglass becomes viewed even more admirably, which in turn lends itself to the portrayal of his slave owners, the cruel treatment of blacks, and the overall intensity of the story.

The following passage demonstrates a series of short paratactic clauses within reversed style sentences, revealing a pair of contradicting ideas contradicting. This grammatical choice mirrors one of the thematic patterns within his story. One example of this "reversed symmetry" in the text is found through the concept that the more knowledge Douglass gained, the more he began to suffer and leading to feelings of despair.

Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.

I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed. (Chapter VII)

Montaigne's Essays (1580)

In his essay "Upon Some Verses of Virgil", Montaigne reflects on human nature through observations made about his own experiences. Montaigne moves in a stream-of-thought from topic to topic meanwhile his writing tends to digress and avoids a single interpretation or central meaning. The reader is forced to follow the elusiveness of Montaigne's argument and trust that he will come full circle:

From the excess of sprightliness I am fallen into that of severity, which is much more troublesome: and for that reason I now and then suffer myself purposely a little to run into disorder, and occupy my mind in wanton and youthful thoughts, wherewith it diverts itself. (Pg. 1)

Is it to say, the less we expend in words, we may pay so much the more in thinking? (Pg. 6)

Every subject is equally fertile to me: a fly will serve the purpose, and `tis well if this I have in hand has not been undertaken at the recommendation of as flighty a will. I may begin with that which pleases me best, for the subjects are all linked to one another. (Pg. 26)

He who has no fruition but in fruition, who wins nothing unless he sweeps the stakes, who takes no pleasure in the chase but in the quarry, ought not to introduce himself in our school: the more steps and degrees there are, so much higher and more honorable is the uppermost seat; we should take a pleasure in being conducted to it, as in magnificent palaces, by various porticoes and passages, long and pleasant galleries, and many windings. (Pg. 29)

These passages convey Montaigne's personal ruminations, anecdotes, and questions based on his experiences. Other times Montaigne uses a more formal structure which provides an didactic approach. These passages often include arguments supported with quotes:

For my part, I will take Aristotle at his word who says, that "Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age." These verses are preached in the ancient school, a school that I much more adhere to than the modern: its virtues appear to me to be greater and the vices less:

"Ceux qui par trop fuyant Venus estrivent, Faillent autant que ceulx qui trop la suyvent." "Tu, dea, tu rerum naturam sola gubernas, Nec sine te quicquam dias in luminis oras Exoritur, neque fit laetum, nec amabile quicquam." (Pd. 6)

From his observations, Montaigne creates metaphors that connect on various levels. Here, he is able to make connections between nature, humanity, and the written essay. As painting represents writing, words become a visual and verbal representation of Montaigne's larger concepts.

While the verses of these two poets treat so reservedly and discreetly of wantonness as they do, methinks they discover it much more openly. Ladies cover their necks with network, priests cover several sacred things, and painters shadow their pictures to give them greater luster: and `tis said that the sun and wind strike more violently by reflection than in a direct line. The Egyptian wisely answered him who asked him what he had under his cloak; "it is hid under my cloak," said he, "that thou mayest not know what it is:" but there are certain other things that people hide only to show them. (Pg. 28)

Writing in “High” Style

An excerpt from Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” rewritten in the “high” style of Winston Churchill:

The woman arrives with two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She places the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table, then she looks at the man and the girl. The girl is gazing at the line of hills. They are white in the sun, and the country is brown and dry.

‘They look like white elephants,’ she says.

‘I’ve never seen one,’ the man drinks his beer.

‘No, you wouldn’t have.’

‘I might have,’ says the man. ‘Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything.’

Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”

In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, the central meaning of the story can be found in the dialogue that takes place between the “American” and Jig. At first their conversation is aimless however the manner in which the two interact with each other provides insight towards their individual characters as well as their relationship.

The repetition of phrases and roundabout nature of their conversation adds to the uneasiness of the couple and the tension that wavers- but never actually builds- through the scene. Back and forth, they each attempt to dissuade the other’s concerns and inadvertently their own as well: “And afterwards they were all so happy,” “...if I do it you’ll be happy” and “I don’t care about me,” “well I care about you,” “oh, yes. But I don’t care about me...”

Jig seems to be younger than the man and almost childlike in the way she says the hills look like “white elephants” and compares the alcoholic drink to licorice. Jig’s talkative manner suggests a quality of naivety and innocence, sharing her thoughts out loud as they come to mind and also voicing her demands whether it be a glass of Anis del Toro or that her companion, “...please please please please please please please stop talking.”

Among the details about the characters provided outside of their dialogue is Jig’s tendency to gaze into the distance, “...and the girl looked across at the hills.” This could either be an avoidance of the subject of conversation or simply a sort of denial that the problem even exists. On the other hand, Jig’s melancholy demeanor seems to suggest a quality of wishfulness exclusive to someone who hasn’t yet let go of their youth, “We can have everything... We can have the whole wide world.”

Orwell's "Politics and the English Language"

In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell discusses the deterioration of the English language. Orwell criticizes political prose writing by analyzing examples and pointing out the main causes for their failure- dying metaphors, verbal false limbs, pretentious diction, and meaningless words.

Despite his criticism of political prose Orwell demonstrates persuasion tactics often found in paratactic sentence structures, for example, his use of repetition in words and rhythm:

Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements.

Another pattern Orwell demonstrates in his construction of sentences is the use of interrupting modifiers:

Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse.

In addition to pointing out where English prose are unsuccessful, he further proves his argument by explaining how one can improve of them. Orwell also takes the opportunity to further prove his point by following these rules within his essay.

In consideration of reversing the decline of the English language, Orwell offers a solution by listing the rules for acceptable prose writing.

Analysis of Sentence Structure in James Joyce's Grace

Paratactic sentence structure that demonstrates movements towards the verse:

The man, without answering, began to twirl the ends of his mustache. He made light of his accident. It was nothing, he said: only a little accident. He spoke very thickly.

No one knew; a voice said:

'Give him air. He's fainted.'

Hypotactic structure because that demonstrates subordination in a complex sentence:

As it passed the Ballast Office the clock showed half-past nine.

Parataxis in the use of short, simple prose that maintain a rhythmic nature through the paragraph:

His collar was unfastened and his necktie undone. He opened his eyes for an instant, sighed and closed them again. One of the gentlemen who had carries him upstairs held a dinged silk hat in his hand. The manager asked repeatedly did no one knew who the injured man was or where had his friends gone...

Compound sentence with elliptical construction:

His inexplicable debts were a byword in his circle; he was a debonair young man.

Nabokov’s Lolita & The Art of Styling Sentences

Let me therefore primly limit myself, in describing Annabel, to saying she was a lovely child a few months my junior. Her parents were old friends of my aunt's, and as stuffy as she. They had rented a villa not far from Hotel Mirana. Bald brown Mr. Leigh and fat, powdered Mrs. Leigh (born Vanessa van Ness). How I loathed them! At first, Annabel and I talked of peripheral affairs. She kept lifting handfuls of fine sand and letting it pour through her fingers. Our brains were turned the way those of intelligent European preadolescents were in our day and set, and I doubt if much individual genius should be assigned to our interest in the plurality of inhabited worlds, competitive tennis, infinity, solipsism and so on. The softness and fragility of baby animals caused us the same intense pain. She wanted to be a nurse in some famished Asiatic country; I wanted to be a famous spy.

All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other's soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so easily found an opportunity to do. After one wild attempt we made to meet at night in her garden (of which more later), the only privacy we were allowed was to be out of earshot but not out of sight on the populous part of the plage. There, on the soft sand, a few feet away from our elders, we would sprawl all morning, in a petrified paroxysm of desire, and take advantage of every blessed quirk in space and time to touch each other: her hand, half-hidden in the sand, would creep toward me, its slender brown fingers sleepwalking nearer and nearer; then, her opalescent knee would start on a long cautious journey; sometimes a chance rampart built by younger children granted us sufficient concealment to graze each other's salty lips; these incomplete contacts drove our healthy and inexperienced young bodies to such a state of exasperation that not even the cold blue water, under which we still clawed at each other, could bring relief.

-V. Nabokov, an excerpt from Lolita

Analysis

Let me therefore primly limit myself, in describing Annabel, to saying she was a lovely child a few months my junior. [Pattern 13; a single modifier out of place for emphasis]

Her parents were old friends of my aunt's, and as stuffy as she.

They had rented a villa not far from Hotel Mirana. [Pattern 17, dependent clause as a subject, object, or complement]

Bald brown Mr. Leigh and fat, powdered Mrs. Leigh (born Vanessa van Ness). [Pattern 5; a series with a balanced pair]

How I loathed them! [Pattern 19; short, simple sentence for dramatic effect]

At first, Annabel and I talked of peripheral affairs. [Pattern 13; a single modifier out of place for emphasis]

She kept lifting handfuls of fine sand and letting it pour through her fingers. Our brains were turned the way those of intelligent European preadolescents were in our day and set, and I doubt if much individual genius should be assigned to our interest in the plurality of inhabited worlds, competitive tennis, infinity, solipsism and so on. [Pattern 15A; complete inversion of normal pattern/ pattern 7; an internal series of appositives or modifiers]

She wanted to be a nurse in some famished Asiatic country; I wanted to be a famous spy. [Pattern 1; a compound sentence that makes use of a semicolon instead of a conjunction]

All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other [pattern 6; an introductory series of appositives]; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other's soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so easily found an opportunity to do.