Stephen King uses multiple literary devices in his novel On Writing to convey the feel of a fictional novel, though it is based on facts from his life. King effectively uses these devices to convey his theme of persevering through adversity to become a greater writer and person. A major technique used in his writing is imagery that comes in many forms, precisely in this passage.
There was a sharp smell of alcohol. A clank as the ear doctor opened his sterilizer. I saw the needle in his hand it looked as long as a ruler in my school pencil box and tensed…. He slid the needle in my ear and punctured my eardrum with it. The pain was beyond anything I have ever felt since...” (King 11).
This use of imagery, in this case, is used to make the audience sympathetic towards young Stephen, but at the same time it is used to put the reader in his place. This imagery is meant to bring the reader into the worst and most painful situation in King’s life and with phrases describing the needles length, and the smell that he has come to associate with the pain he went through. The imagery is also effective in transferring the feelings to the reader, just the
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A perfect part of the novel to explain how King uses anecdotes involves Eula-Beulah, Stephen’s babysitter at the time. “Eula-Beulah prepared me for literary criticism. After having two-hundred-pound babysitter fart on your face and yell POW! The Village Voice holds few terrors”(King 7). He helps us imagine an evil and gassy babysitter, all for the purposes of explaining how a little criticism is no comparison to an obese person farting on your face. Though the story’s purpose is not singular, it also accomplishes a boost to Stephen’s ability to understood throughout the novel and enhances the later portions by giving him credibility on the subject of his
In the "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards, he claims that those without God will suffer. Throughout his sermon he uses imagery and repetition. By using imagery, it helps the reader understand his persepective and have a better idea of what is happening. Edwards states, "... it is a great furnance of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath..."
These events shape the audiences response to the novel and manipulate how we perceive these issues. Figurative language has been used in this text to portray the horrific scenes depicted in the prologue. Fellows’ most gruesome experience is illustrated through similes which enables the reader to visualise the horrid experience. He explains how the “wound opened up like a flower… worm-like creatures oozing and wriggling out of it like spaghetti” which compares this unthinkable experience to items we are more familiar with. By incorporating this simile, Fellows is able to manipulate the audience into being shocked and disgusted by the conditions of this prison.
Component 1: Writing Analysis Growth Narrative Throughout the semester growth can be seen in my writing from the Into the Wild prep work that demonstrates my starting point to the final Into the Wild Essay that demonstrates my improvement. The prep work was one of the very first assignments of the year and I particularly struggled within the section “Reasoning” and more specifically, “building my language through cause and effect language.” After writing this assignment, I wanted to focus on building a more articulate analysis through my reasoning by using “if/then” statements. My first draft contained the statement, “Krakauer’s repetition of the word “relieved,” indicates how isolation was comforting to McCandless (55).
Similarly, Douglass uses imagery to his advantage to describe the horror of witnessing the whipping of a fellow slave. Douglass recalls that he had “often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of [his] own aunt….The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped
might be laid in the gashes” (16). This powerful use of imagery makes the audience realize the brutality from the slaveholders. With Douglass being only a child, it invokes an emotional response from the audience because it demonstrates that these cruelties happened even to the young and defenseless. Douglass mentions that children “Were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs, they would come and devour the mush” (16). This parallelism is associating the starving children to a filthy animal.
The book I chose to read is A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer who tells the story of his horrific childhood. Dave Pelzer as a child was brutally beaten and starved by his unstable alcoholic mother, his mother played so called “games” with him that nearly left him dead. He had to learn to play his mother's games in order to stay alive, as she no longer considered him apart of the family. As years went by Daves punishments or so called “games” became more dangerous, humiliating and disturbing. For example, he was forced to wear the same ripped, smelly clothing everyday.
Throughout the entire novel, the author’s use of literary devices is very clear. These literary devices, specifically similes and personification, help the reader get a better idea of the exact sounds and feelings which will allow them to know what it feels like to be there in that moment. “ I stood there, trying to think of a comeback, when suddenly, I heard a whooshing sound, like the sound you get when you open a vacuum-sealed can of peanuts. Then the brown water that had puddled up all over the field began to move. It began to run toward the back portables, like someone pulled the plug out of a giant bathtub.
Similarly, Hughes uses grotesque imagery to emphasize the decay of a forgotten idea. However, said forgotten idea can be interpreted as more than a concept when the time period is taken into account. Through analysis, it’s possible to construe Hughes’s dream as a person or society. In the line “Or fester like a sore-- And then run?” (Hughes 4), imagery is used to conjure the picture of a blister on human skin.
For example, if Stephen were to be mad at Keiko for their break up instead of being kind and understanding, keeping his emotions all to himself; Stephen would have influenced Keiko in a bad way, not earning a permanent place in her heart, rather invoking dislike and hate. In addition, Stephen comforting Keiko in the time of need makes sure that Keiko herself is not pushed of her own breaking point, which would have been another problem altogether. Joining the two reasons that Keiko would never be same if Stephen had acted differently, and the fact that he inquired about her brother in the first place show that Stephen affects other’s mindsets and personality through his empathy and his idea basically that nobody should die
Stephen King’s birthplace is Portland, Maine. His parents are Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. Stephen King is a university of Maine graduate, he graduated with a B.S. in English and a minor in dramatics. King has several major achievements for his literary masterpieces. King is most known for writing novels, short stories and screenplays; not many people know about the children’s book he published.
Tangerine is a book about action, trust, favoritism, and secrets. The main character is a boy named Paul Fisher. Paul is a middle schooler in Tangerine County, Florida, and has a older brother named Erik Fisher. Paul has a hard time remembering what caused him to be legally blind. He is tired of everyone thinking that his brother Eric, is a kind, innocent gentlemen, and not the mean bully
In particular the scene of Patrick's death imagery is used to make his death more realistic and easy to see in the minds eye for the reader. “At this point Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (Dahl 320). The use of the words, swung, big frozen leg, high in the air are all words and phrases that dramatise the events in the story. Without those words the story would not have the same effect or impact on the reader. ”The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock.”
I completely agree with Lily that this was one of the funniest anecdote that we had read thus far. I think it shows another side of Stephen King because he is a dark horror and sci-fi writer, but reading about his life you see that he is also quite a comedian. In “On Writing” he has been able to make fun of his life and not take himself seriously, and you can sometimes see that he is reflecting on the memories and realizing in the moment of writing what they even meant. The anecdote that really stuck with me is when he talked about having both a drug addiction and being an alcoholic.
In my opinion, the narrator seems to narrate the story with the least explanation in order to allow the reader to gain information based on the details that only reveled by
Kurt Vonnegut author of slaughterhouse five, in the 1985 essay “How to Write with Style,” makes observations and recommendations for infusing personality into your work. It begins by defining "elements of style" as the unique personal qualities that you show to the reader. Vonnegut then goes on to make an argument on why we should improve our writing style. To which he says it's out of sign of respect for the reader. Basically not putting effort into your writing will make the reader will think that you care little of them.