понедельник, 14 декабря 2015 г.

Stylistic means.

The narrator of the story is first-person (it rather encompasses a group of the inhabitants of the town), non-omniscient. To make the story more catching, expressing, interesting and lively the author resorted to the following stylistic devices:
Phonetic means
Direct onomatopoeia: “clop-clop-clop”. It is employed to make the story more realistic, to make the reader “hear” the sound of the buggy.
Lexical devices
1.Figures of replacement.
1.1. Figures of quality.

Metaphor: “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…” , “ …a fallen monument”, “ “the new generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town”. Metaphor make us to look with a “fresh view” on the traits and characteristics of a person/object, and that is why it makes the story more emotional and expressive. Personification: “a staircase mounted into still more shadow”, “that quality had been to virulent and too furious to die”. When features of the  living creatures are ascribed to inanimate objects, it makes everything seem more vivid and lively.
Metonymy: “That night the Board of Aldermen met--three graybeards and one younger man, a member of the rising generation.” “So she had blood-kin under her roof again…”  - this examples exemplifies 2 types of synecdoche. “Blood-kin” is the whole representing its part- the whole kinship represents 2 Emily’s cousins, and the “roof “ stands for the house, i.e. the part stands for the whole object (contrary to the first example) . “..a twenty-five-cent piece for the collection plate” In the given example a plate represents all the alms people take in the church. “Why, send her word to stop it”, To “send a word” means to send a letter (a case of synecdoche – a word is a part of a letter) “the old despair of a penny” (synecdoche - 1 penny represents money in general), “reins and whip in a yellow glove” ( a glove stands for the Barron’s arm). This stylistic device makes reader’s imagination work and thus captures his attention into the story.
   Periphrasis: “the thrill and the old despair of a penny” stands for the value of money, the whispering began” means people started to gossip, “We sat back to watch developments” – People didn’t literary sat back in their seats and watched some movie. It means that the society did not interfere with the course of events and simply waited what was going to happen next; “she was fallen” means that she was in despair and lost moral strength; “a touch of earthiness” – something practical, material; “She carried her head high” – she behaved with self-respect and dignity; Euphemisms about death: “to join the representatives”, “to go away”
Epithet: “stubborn and coquettish decay”, “Her voice was dry and cold”, “high and mighty Grierson”, “big voice”, “virulent and furious quality”, “…his voice had grown harsh and rusty”, “patient and biding dust”, “a thin, acrid pall…”, “pepper-and salt iron-gray colour”. Euphemisms make the story more descriptive and detailed, so that the reader may picture the events in his mind precisely and “in colour”.
Irony: “The two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily”. Irony is used for 2 purposes: to make the reader smile: 2) to point out to some vices or discrepancies.  
1.2 Figures of quantity
Hyperbole: “I’d be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily” –it is rather a trite hyperbole meaning that the speaker doesn’t really want to bother Emily Grierson.
2. Figures of co-occurrence
2.1. Figures of identity – simile. Simile may be implicit and explicit. Explicit simile is recognized by the formal marker “as if”, “as though”, “like”. The author makes extensive use of similes in the short novel, so that I won’t provide all the examples. Explicit ones:
“ “He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.”; “… talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs…”; “…her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl…”; “She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag.”;  Implicit similes: “…her hair was cut short…with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows…”; “…haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look…”; “the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust”.
As simily is very similar to metaphor (it is considered to be “an explicit” metaphor), it’s functions are pretty similar. To make reader’s mind work, to make his imagination erect and vivid.
2.2. Figures of inequality
Climax: “Daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket.” Gradation is used to give the story intensity, the provoke strong emotions.
Syntactical features
In the prosodic literature syntactic constructions are of great consequence for the author. As well as other stylistic means, they may provide the reader with the additional information, render evaluative connotations or express emotions. Enumeration: “Thus she passed from generation to generation-- dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse. “ This device makes the story more descriptive.
Ellipsis: “She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag.” It is characteristic to colloquial speech, as well as for the literary. The author may resort to it when he/she tries to make the speech sound conversational or to make it more emotional and abrupt.
Incomplete sentences:During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning.” Just the same functions as in the previously mentioned  “ellipsis”.
Inversion:  “On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily's father.” It is characteristic to poetic literature and literary style in general. It makes the speech high-flown and lofted. It may also be employed to emphasize on the most important things/personalities/events in the text (actual division of the sentence)
Aposiopesis: "But, Miss Emily--" We must go by the--"; “Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . .”; " I'd recom--"; "But what you want is--"; "Is . . . arsenic? ". To my mind, this device is being used for 2 reasons:  1) to represent colloquial speech in action, which, as we all know, is full of pauses and interruptions; 2) to portray the uncertainty and fear of the town citizens in their conversations with Ms. Emily and her unwillingness and lack of desire to establish constructive communication with them.
Polysyndeton: The construction company came with riggers and mules and machinery, and a foreman named Homer Barron…”; And, as we had expected all along, within three days Homer Barron was back in town. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time.” “A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed, which, lifted, left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded;” Polysyndeton creates an impression of enumeration and also emphasizes on the sentances it is employed in.
Repetition: Repetition is used to emphasize on the main ideas that shouldn’t be overlooked. “I have no taxes in Jefferson” (Emile represents herself as assertive and confident. It also shows her unwillingless to accept change, her living-in-the-past state of mind);  “ Poor Emily” (reiterate inhabitants of the town. It is a kind of irony, author makes it clear that they have no sympathy for her – pure curiosity. and, perhaps, the reader should rather feel pity for the society). Repetition of the sentence “we said”: “So the next day we all said, "She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said, "She will marry him." Then we said, "She will persuade him yet," because Homer himself had remarked--he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club--that he was not a marrying man. Later we said, "Poor Emily" behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy”; It is used to show how gossiping is the society and how quickly changing are its opinions and ideas. “grew grayer and grayer” It is like a representation of the voice of “the mass” – changing its views and opinions constantly, judging but not helping. Anadiplosis or catch repetition: “…to hear him cuss the niggers, and the niggers singing…”; “backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished”  
Anaphora: «We were really glad. We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been.” Anaphora, as any peretition, foregrounds the pats which change, for they are always of novelty.
Parallelism:Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it.; «When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray.” “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away…” Parallel constructions make the speech more homogenious, and also lay emphasis on the ideas presented.
Detachment: “ The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom.” ; “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will. Used for the purpose of foregrounding.
Rhetoric question: "Will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?" Requires no answer. Makes the reader think about something author believes is important or inclines to realization of the absurdity of some facts or events.
Hyphonation: “yellow-wheeled”, “pepper-and-salt”, “iron-steel” – a peculiar way to make unique epithets, which an author considers to be necessary in the text.



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