Post by Angie on Feb 14, 2007 19:17:45 GMT -5
Yet another essay written for English class. I just felt like posting it because I got great compliments from my teacher on it; plus, I got an A when half the class got B's and C's.
The works I refer to in this piece are "The Slaves' New Year's Day," "The Trials of Girlhood," and "What Slaves are taught to think of the North" from Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. You can read these short chapters here (click on the second to last link in the navigation, and a menu of all the chapters should show up).
The assignment, basically, was to write about an aspect (or more than one aspect) of style and how a particular author we've read in class utilized it as a key writing technique.
~
What makes a good writer? The answer to this question is, of course, very debatable because opinion varies with each individual to whom it is asked. However, more often than not, the aspects that appeal to most readers are somehow related to the universally useful tool of style. In fact, the writers who are considered by a majority to be the best are almost always those whose writing intricately intertwines all of those attributes to create an effective and fluid piece overall, and such a thing is rarely done by accident. For example, in the story Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs uses various different aspects of style to demonstrate the irony of some of the situations that occur in the novel, which, thus, makes it more effective persuasively and magnifies the themes of the narrative.
One way to make an ironic situation have greater impact is through the use of parallelism. When Jacobs is describing the “trials of girlhood,” the phrase “she will” is continually used at the beginnings of three consecutive sentences to describe the bleak future a beautiful slave girl will inevitably have to face. This repetitive sentence introduction emphasizes each of the things that are in store for her just because of the way she was born. In another part of the story, the author chooses to use parallelism in a paragraph that contrasts the sorrow of hiring-day on New Year’s for the slaves with the joyous times free men traditionally enjoy during the holiday. In nearly every sentence of this portion of the piece, a statement about something cheerful is made, and then there is an even more positive elaboration of it in the latter part of the sentence. Such a listing of happy things like “friendly wishes... and gifts” or “a pleasant season... and the light of day [that] is blessed” put amidst such a dreary tale further illuminates the contradiction the author is trying to demonstrate (Jacobs 13). In both instances Harriet Jacobs does well with the strategy of parallelism to exhibit the irony of the life of a slave to show it in a more negative light.
Another stylistic technique the author uses to demonstrate a situation’s irony is her asking of rhetorical questions. As she discusses the situation of a life of condemnation because of the narrator’s mere natural beauty, she asks no one in particular, “But where could I turn for protection?” (Jacobs 27) This immediately raises sympathy in readers’ minds because of the implication that there is truly nowhere for the unfortunate girl to turn. Later on in the story, Harriet Jacobs takes a different approach with the questions, directing them straight at her audience. She asks, “What would you be, if you had been born and brought up a slave, with generations of slaves for ancestors?” (Jacobs 46) Yet again, a chord is struck in the heart. This technique of style is quite effective for the author’s purpose of persuading someone to act upon her words after seeing the irony and injustice of slaves’ situations with new clarity.
Sometimes authors like Harriet Jacobs feel a need to leave a thought lingering in the reader’s mind, so they choose to structure parts of their writing unusually, such as by leaving a final line alone instead of elaborating or commenting on it like one would often be wont to do. For example, Jacobs writes that an “old black woman was left to be sold to any body who would give twenty dollars for her,” and the chapter just ends, leaving that stinging thought continuing its discourse with the reader’s conscious (Jacobs 14). In a latter portion of the narrative, she says that “slave-holders pride themselves upon being honorable men,” but she feels “small respect for their veracity.” (Jacobs 45) To support this opinion, she then goes on for the rest of the paragraph describing the lies slaves are incessantly told to keep them ignorant or weaken their morale. This portion of the story accomplishes the goal of showing the irony in the masters’ mask of integrity through its structure because the next paragraph begins with the simple statement, “This whole story was false.” (Jacobs 45) Jacobs’s narrative is a perfect example of how sometimes choosing to vary from the norm with style can produce a more cogent and diverse piece of literature.
Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, with its varied types of scenes surrounding the central theme of the irony of slavery, provides a wide variety of models of stylistic techniques that come together seamlessly to create a more cohesive and persuasive story overall. Harriet Jacobs is one of those unique authors who see the importance of the proper utilization of these methods and, thus, are placed a little higher than most others in many readers’ minds, even if the readers do not always realize precisely what captivates their thoughts and touches their hearts. If only other aspiring writers could study such artists and learn to become more aware of the advantages of consciously working with style throughout the entirety of a piece, there would be no limit to the potential for the success of authors, and maybe even the improvement of society, everywhere.
~
Note that I have not made any revisions that she recommended (there were a couple of minor grammatical errors, and I apparently didn't do my parenthetical citations properly), nor have I gone through to re-underline titles or anything like that. In other words, I'm tired, and I've got a research paper that's worrying me too much to care right now.
Also, I know I sound pretty wordy, but that's because I had a minimum page count to get to. And I'm a person who tends to be longwinded anyway.
The works I refer to in this piece are "The Slaves' New Year's Day," "The Trials of Girlhood," and "What Slaves are taught to think of the North" from Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. You can read these short chapters here (click on the second to last link in the navigation, and a menu of all the chapters should show up).
The assignment, basically, was to write about an aspect (or more than one aspect) of style and how a particular author we've read in class utilized it as a key writing technique.
~
What makes a good writer? The answer to this question is, of course, very debatable because opinion varies with each individual to whom it is asked. However, more often than not, the aspects that appeal to most readers are somehow related to the universally useful tool of style. In fact, the writers who are considered by a majority to be the best are almost always those whose writing intricately intertwines all of those attributes to create an effective and fluid piece overall, and such a thing is rarely done by accident. For example, in the story Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs uses various different aspects of style to demonstrate the irony of some of the situations that occur in the novel, which, thus, makes it more effective persuasively and magnifies the themes of the narrative.
One way to make an ironic situation have greater impact is through the use of parallelism. When Jacobs is describing the “trials of girlhood,” the phrase “she will” is continually used at the beginnings of three consecutive sentences to describe the bleak future a beautiful slave girl will inevitably have to face. This repetitive sentence introduction emphasizes each of the things that are in store for her just because of the way she was born. In another part of the story, the author chooses to use parallelism in a paragraph that contrasts the sorrow of hiring-day on New Year’s for the slaves with the joyous times free men traditionally enjoy during the holiday. In nearly every sentence of this portion of the piece, a statement about something cheerful is made, and then there is an even more positive elaboration of it in the latter part of the sentence. Such a listing of happy things like “friendly wishes... and gifts” or “a pleasant season... and the light of day [that] is blessed” put amidst such a dreary tale further illuminates the contradiction the author is trying to demonstrate (Jacobs 13). In both instances Harriet Jacobs does well with the strategy of parallelism to exhibit the irony of the life of a slave to show it in a more negative light.
Another stylistic technique the author uses to demonstrate a situation’s irony is her asking of rhetorical questions. As she discusses the situation of a life of condemnation because of the narrator’s mere natural beauty, she asks no one in particular, “But where could I turn for protection?” (Jacobs 27) This immediately raises sympathy in readers’ minds because of the implication that there is truly nowhere for the unfortunate girl to turn. Later on in the story, Harriet Jacobs takes a different approach with the questions, directing them straight at her audience. She asks, “What would you be, if you had been born and brought up a slave, with generations of slaves for ancestors?” (Jacobs 46) Yet again, a chord is struck in the heart. This technique of style is quite effective for the author’s purpose of persuading someone to act upon her words after seeing the irony and injustice of slaves’ situations with new clarity.
Sometimes authors like Harriet Jacobs feel a need to leave a thought lingering in the reader’s mind, so they choose to structure parts of their writing unusually, such as by leaving a final line alone instead of elaborating or commenting on it like one would often be wont to do. For example, Jacobs writes that an “old black woman was left to be sold to any body who would give twenty dollars for her,” and the chapter just ends, leaving that stinging thought continuing its discourse with the reader’s conscious (Jacobs 14). In a latter portion of the narrative, she says that “slave-holders pride themselves upon being honorable men,” but she feels “small respect for their veracity.” (Jacobs 45) To support this opinion, she then goes on for the rest of the paragraph describing the lies slaves are incessantly told to keep them ignorant or weaken their morale. This portion of the story accomplishes the goal of showing the irony in the masters’ mask of integrity through its structure because the next paragraph begins with the simple statement, “This whole story was false.” (Jacobs 45) Jacobs’s narrative is a perfect example of how sometimes choosing to vary from the norm with style can produce a more cogent and diverse piece of literature.
Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, with its varied types of scenes surrounding the central theme of the irony of slavery, provides a wide variety of models of stylistic techniques that come together seamlessly to create a more cohesive and persuasive story overall. Harriet Jacobs is one of those unique authors who see the importance of the proper utilization of these methods and, thus, are placed a little higher than most others in many readers’ minds, even if the readers do not always realize precisely what captivates their thoughts and touches their hearts. If only other aspiring writers could study such artists and learn to become more aware of the advantages of consciously working with style throughout the entirety of a piece, there would be no limit to the potential for the success of authors, and maybe even the improvement of society, everywhere.
~
Note that I have not made any revisions that she recommended (there were a couple of minor grammatical errors, and I apparently didn't do my parenthetical citations properly), nor have I gone through to re-underline titles or anything like that. In other words, I'm tired, and I've got a research paper that's worrying me too much to care right now.
Also, I know I sound pretty wordy, but that's because I had a minimum page count to get to. And I'm a person who tends to be longwinded anyway.