Diction
Consider: Art is the antidote that can call us back from the edge of numbness, restoring the ability to feel for another. --Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson
Discuss: By using the word antidote, what does the author imply about the inability to feel for another? If we changed the word antidote to gift, what effect would it have on the meaning of the sentence?
Apply: Write a sentence using a medical term to characterize art.
Detail
Consider: Whenever he was so fortunate as to have near him a spoiled hare that had been kept too long, or a meat pie made with rancid butter, he gorged himself with such violence that his veins swelled, and the moisture broke out on his forehead. -- Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Samuel Johnson"
Discuss: What effect does the detail (the spoiled hare, the rancid butter, the swollen veins, the sweaty forehead) have on the reader? How would the meaning of the sentence be changed by ending it after himself?
Apply: Write a sentence describing someone with disgusting eating habits. It must be one, correct sentence; and it must contain at least three vivid details.
Imagery
I was born the year of the loon
in a great commotion, My mother -
who used to pack $500 cash
in the shoulders of her gambling coat,
who had always considered herself
the family's "First Son" -
took one look at me
and lit out again
for a vacation in Sumatra.
Her brother purchased my baby clothes;
I've seen them, little clown suits
of silk and color.
- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, "Chronicle"
Discuss: Examine the image of the baby clothes; little clown suits of silk and color. No specific color is mentioned. What effect does this have on the meaning of the lines? Contrast the description of the mother's gambling coat with the image of the baby clothes. What attitude do these images reveal about the mother?
Apply: list 5 items of clothing that can suggest either seriousness or frivolity. Tell me what image each item of clothing expresses.
Syntax
Consider: She is a woman sho misses moisture, who has always loved low green hedges and ferns. --Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
Discuss: Both of the subordinate clauses in this sentence modify woman. What effect does this parallel structure have on the sentence? How would it change the feeling evoked by the sentence if it read: She misses moisture and has always loved low green hedges and ferns.
Apply: Write a sentence like Ondaatje's which layers two or more subordinate clauses to evoke a sharp image. Begin with "She was a friend who..."
Tone
Consider: It's true. If you want to buy a spring suit, the choice selection occurs in February: a bathing suit, March: back-to-school clothes, July: a fur coat, August. Did I tell you about the week I gave in to a mad-Mitty desire to buy a bathing suit in August?
The clerk, swathed in a long-sleeved woolen dress which made her look for the world like Teddy Snowcrop, was aghast. "Surely, you are putting me on," she said. "A bathing suit! In Augurt!"
"That's right," I said firmly, "and I am not leaving this store until you show me one."
She shrugged helplessly. "But surely you are aware of the fact that we haven't had a bathing suit in stock since the first of June. Our - no offense - White Elephant sale was June third and we unload - rather, disposed of all of our suits at that time." -Erma Bombeck, At Wit's End
Discuss: What is the attitude of the writer toward the subject matter? What diction and details does Bombeck use to express this attitude? In other words, what dictionand details create the tone of the passage?
Apply: Write down two words that describe the tone of this passage.
