Post by frannerz on Mar 11, 2009 22:51:05 GMT -5
Purpose and Meaning
Learning that Dillard’s mother is a passionate, knowledgeable and bold, one can see that she is as enthusiastic in learning as she is in teaching. From Dillard was younger, in the excerpt, we can see her mother already pruning her for the future trials she will face. "Is that your own idea? Or somebody's else's?" is just one of the few questions she continuously asked her children, which led Dillard to become a profound writer. The relation between Dillard and her mother can be seen through the fact that they both love words. Dillard’s mother loved to serve her children with words and phrases, which can account for the use of elevated diction throughout Dillard’s excerpt.
Powerful language has the potential to overwhelm some people, due to its ability to cause different reactions. The author, Annie Dillard, certainly had an understanding of these examples of language since her mother loved to point them out. Often people in the same group have related reactions, such as the ability for people in Pittsburgh to confuse the pronunciation and use of the words “leave” and “let”. Dillard’s mother was an advocate of language and we can see that the selection was more about the language than the pretenses given about her mother. Such examples can be found as in the comment, “Alligator Alley for those who liked things cute, and, for connoisseurs like Mother, for lovers of the human drama in all its boldness and terror, the Tamiami Trail.” Dillard both related her mother and language in the same statement, but those who did not understand the statement did not get that it was more about language than her mother loving the words.
Throughout her memoir, Dillard habitually refers to her mother being “intelligent”, “energetic” and “an unstoppable force” that never let goes of her beliefs. So the overall message portrayed to her audience was that of individualism. In her final passage, Dillard precisely placed an example of a time where she had a belief and her mother questioned it asking, "Do you consult this Everyone before you make your decisions?” Dillard’s mother wanted them to take a stand with their own beliefs, “if the nation came to madness”.
Language and Style
When people come upon a new and intriguing word, they want to know the prefix, root, and meaning of the word. It’s the same effect which the pronunciation of the word. Dillard’s mother, for example, kept repeating “Terwilliger bunts one” for years, after hearing it on television. Different people treat sounds the same as any other idea, and they can vary from noises. "Tamiami Trail" is one of the things that just rolls off the tongue, and can be entertaining to say, because of the way it’s broken into syllables. "Royal Poinciana" places the emphasis not on the syllables but on the prefix poin-, in the second word; which shows what a difference one prefix can make to the whole meaning.
Noun-verb relationship causes the intensity of the individual words to come together and form a symphony of contrasting sounds, images and feelings. The separate actions, “…laid logs, dragged drilling machines, hauled dredges, heaped limestone,” are nothing special when done separately, but when combined, they not only reveal traits such as strong determination, and hard work, but exemplifies the task. Another example would be when Dillard’s mother, “bid slams for the devilment of it, or raised her opponents' suit to bug them, or showed her hand, or tossed her cards in a handful behind her back in a characteristic swift motion accompanied by a vibrantly innocent look.” These various things are done consecutively one after the other to intensify the simple tasks of just playing bridge.
Writers must constantly be combining high and low levels of abstraction in each paragraph as well because detail is the information that can convince and fascinate readers. In her paragraph beginning ‘“Its grieves me,” she would say, “it grieves my heart,”’ it shows that Dillard also got this concept form her mother. Details tend to connect the audience to the speaker or writer, because it puts them in the author’s point of view. Dillard’s mother held the package in “two hands” instead of one. The audience can conclude that she maybe connected emotionally to the package or it might be too big to hold with one hand. Thus, by reading the rest of the passage we see that Dillard’s mother was indeed connected emotionally to the package. So Dillard’s details are insights to what may come next or why the person is doing what ever action they are doing.
Most of the humor in the essay is created from the dialogue between Dillard’s mother and whom ever she seems to be speaking to. As Dillard says, her mother had a career of anarchism and loved to play gags on people. Such examples can be found in the incident with the man and woman at the zoo, the prank call on the telephone, and with Dillard’s father and friends at the beach. Humor is apart of Dillard’s mother’s personality and has thus been an essential part of her life.
Strategy and Structure
Because Dillard’s mother can constitute an argument and see it through until the opposing individual(s) has ceded to her request, she poses as a good model for Dillard and her “know-it-all” attitude. Dillard’s mother is constantly on the page of finding new words and language syntax to teach her children and use to question them on their motif’s so that they can better rely on their own independent thinking. Since Dillard’s audience has read and seen first hand how she has developed from a child, it can be said that this is a very effective approach.
On the contrary to some saying Dillard did not appreciate her mother enough to mention her name, even the great Shakespeare once said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet." Even if Dillard’s audience were to know her mothers name would that change the view and objectivity they have identified in her? No, thus to generalize the American childhood theme and relate it to other individuals she gives her mother no name. Dillard’s mother is an entity of herself who knows and has no need of a name, only a stead-fast mindset and a goal.
In order to quickly sum up her own training as a child, Dillard gives her audience the example of a “questioning, think-for-yourself kind of mind” that her mother has initiated within Dillard herself. This is all in hopes of conveying the same teachings to her audience. In hopes of creating individuals from an example of personal experience, Dillard has taught her audience what it means to be an individual. As a writer, Dillard has both accomplished her goal of transmitting valuable information and possibly created a new type of thinking in people.
Learning that Dillard’s mother is a passionate, knowledgeable and bold, one can see that she is as enthusiastic in learning as she is in teaching. From Dillard was younger, in the excerpt, we can see her mother already pruning her for the future trials she will face. "Is that your own idea? Or somebody's else's?" is just one of the few questions she continuously asked her children, which led Dillard to become a profound writer. The relation between Dillard and her mother can be seen through the fact that they both love words. Dillard’s mother loved to serve her children with words and phrases, which can account for the use of elevated diction throughout Dillard’s excerpt.
Powerful language has the potential to overwhelm some people, due to its ability to cause different reactions. The author, Annie Dillard, certainly had an understanding of these examples of language since her mother loved to point them out. Often people in the same group have related reactions, such as the ability for people in Pittsburgh to confuse the pronunciation and use of the words “leave” and “let”. Dillard’s mother was an advocate of language and we can see that the selection was more about the language than the pretenses given about her mother. Such examples can be found as in the comment, “Alligator Alley for those who liked things cute, and, for connoisseurs like Mother, for lovers of the human drama in all its boldness and terror, the Tamiami Trail.” Dillard both related her mother and language in the same statement, but those who did not understand the statement did not get that it was more about language than her mother loving the words.
Throughout her memoir, Dillard habitually refers to her mother being “intelligent”, “energetic” and “an unstoppable force” that never let goes of her beliefs. So the overall message portrayed to her audience was that of individualism. In her final passage, Dillard precisely placed an example of a time where she had a belief and her mother questioned it asking, "Do you consult this Everyone before you make your decisions?” Dillard’s mother wanted them to take a stand with their own beliefs, “if the nation came to madness”.
Language and Style
When people come upon a new and intriguing word, they want to know the prefix, root, and meaning of the word. It’s the same effect which the pronunciation of the word. Dillard’s mother, for example, kept repeating “Terwilliger bunts one” for years, after hearing it on television. Different people treat sounds the same as any other idea, and they can vary from noises. "Tamiami Trail" is one of the things that just rolls off the tongue, and can be entertaining to say, because of the way it’s broken into syllables. "Royal Poinciana" places the emphasis not on the syllables but on the prefix poin-, in the second word; which shows what a difference one prefix can make to the whole meaning.
Noun-verb relationship causes the intensity of the individual words to come together and form a symphony of contrasting sounds, images and feelings. The separate actions, “…laid logs, dragged drilling machines, hauled dredges, heaped limestone,” are nothing special when done separately, but when combined, they not only reveal traits such as strong determination, and hard work, but exemplifies the task. Another example would be when Dillard’s mother, “bid slams for the devilment of it, or raised her opponents' suit to bug them, or showed her hand, or tossed her cards in a handful behind her back in a characteristic swift motion accompanied by a vibrantly innocent look.” These various things are done consecutively one after the other to intensify the simple tasks of just playing bridge.
Writers must constantly be combining high and low levels of abstraction in each paragraph as well because detail is the information that can convince and fascinate readers. In her paragraph beginning ‘“Its grieves me,” she would say, “it grieves my heart,”’ it shows that Dillard also got this concept form her mother. Details tend to connect the audience to the speaker or writer, because it puts them in the author’s point of view. Dillard’s mother held the package in “two hands” instead of one. The audience can conclude that she maybe connected emotionally to the package or it might be too big to hold with one hand. Thus, by reading the rest of the passage we see that Dillard’s mother was indeed connected emotionally to the package. So Dillard’s details are insights to what may come next or why the person is doing what ever action they are doing.
Most of the humor in the essay is created from the dialogue between Dillard’s mother and whom ever she seems to be speaking to. As Dillard says, her mother had a career of anarchism and loved to play gags on people. Such examples can be found in the incident with the man and woman at the zoo, the prank call on the telephone, and with Dillard’s father and friends at the beach. Humor is apart of Dillard’s mother’s personality and has thus been an essential part of her life.
Strategy and Structure
Because Dillard’s mother can constitute an argument and see it through until the opposing individual(s) has ceded to her request, she poses as a good model for Dillard and her “know-it-all” attitude. Dillard’s mother is constantly on the page of finding new words and language syntax to teach her children and use to question them on their motif’s so that they can better rely on their own independent thinking. Since Dillard’s audience has read and seen first hand how she has developed from a child, it can be said that this is a very effective approach.
On the contrary to some saying Dillard did not appreciate her mother enough to mention her name, even the great Shakespeare once said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet." Even if Dillard’s audience were to know her mothers name would that change the view and objectivity they have identified in her? No, thus to generalize the American childhood theme and relate it to other individuals she gives her mother no name. Dillard’s mother is an entity of herself who knows and has no need of a name, only a stead-fast mindset and a goal.
In order to quickly sum up her own training as a child, Dillard gives her audience the example of a “questioning, think-for-yourself kind of mind” that her mother has initiated within Dillard herself. This is all in hopes of conveying the same teachings to her audience. In hopes of creating individuals from an example of personal experience, Dillard has taught her audience what it means to be an individual. As a writer, Dillard has both accomplished her goal of transmitting valuable information and possibly created a new type of thinking in people.