Word Whisperer - Sophia Takahashi
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Introduction, Foreword + Pages 3-32
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Rotation #1
Metaphor - "[...] by the blows of a hammer (3 Solzhenitsyn)."
Alex used this metaphor to enhance the meaning of the 'loud hammering outside'. By using this metaphor, he was able to show the reader the exaggeration and limits of living in camp. A Metaphor is defined as "a word or phrase which is not directly applicable to the object or action defined". The 'blows' of a hammer does not exactly define a hammer.
Personification - "He couldn't see, but his ears told him everything going on in the barrack room and especially in the corner his squad occupied (5 Solzhenitsyn)."
The author decided to make use of personification for this line. 'But his ears told him', is not always defined as an ear's attribute - ears are for hearing. The author gave the ear personification. By doing this, we can tell that there is a lot of commotion going on inside the barrack, and by doing this, his ear is 'basically telling him everything'. This gives the line a stronger meaning to the reader.
Simile - " [...] went on lying on his sawdust mattress, as hard as a board from long wear [...] (7 Solzhenitsyn)."
The simile is used to show how hard the sawdust mattress is. By reading this passage (without the simile), we would not think that the mattress was exactly hard - we might define it as variations of things. By having this simile, Alex gives the reason a slight definition of how hard it really was too sleep in a stiff bed for many years.
Onomatopeia - "Splash! Splash! (15 Solzhenitsyn)"
A form of onomatopoeia is used on page 15, where Ivan describes soup falling on the floor. This makes it clearer to the reader, and the author's style changes. This gives the reader the sensation of having the water/soup 'splash' onto the ground.
Onomatopeia is describing an object/action by its sound. Example: 'the bomb went boom!'.
Great post, Sophia. To begin with, I would like to say that I loved how you chose 4 devices to comment on. I believe that these were very well chosen and the way that you explained each was very helpful. The images that you selected were also interesting because it helped the reader to understand what you were referring to, better. Great post overall, and good citations from the book, I just think that you should add more sources from where you got the definitions of each device. As I said, after all, your post was great, really. Thanks for pushing my thinking forward!
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ReplyDeleteSophia,
ReplyDeleteI really liked all the devices you choose, including the quotations with it. I liked your simile example the most, because it made me think like what you said, if what he said wasn't a simile we wouldn't have known what the mattress was like. So having that as a simile helps us understand better what the mattress was like. I thought your post was really good, good job.