Comparing Two Passages

Each Author is unique they write about many different pieces, but they all have this set of principles they go by. Every author thinks about these four main concepts when they write and they are audience, genre, context, purpose. They first think about who will want to read their work so try to establish an audience. The Author next has to determine what their writing will be. They have to decide whether it's science fiction or any other, but they understand it important tell the genre of the work. Authors cannot be all over the place they are focused on one specific tone. Next authors contemplate why to write at all there must be a reason that is true, they all written for a purpose each author has one. Authors often write in troubling times for them like

Birds are an exotic species. The ability to fly and dart across the beautiful, open sky is something no other creature can do. Both authors of these passages seem to have found their magnificence and were taken by storm when writing their excerpts. John James Audubon and Annie Dillard both worked graciously to achieve success in their writing. These authors have written wonderful paragraphs filled with rhetorical devices that are both the same and vastly different.

Hello. I am Anna Zhang. Today, I will discuss the motif of birds in Joseph Boyden’s novel: Three Day Road by sharing two quotes following with my personal analysis.

The writer makes use of diction to express his feelings towards the literary work and to set the dramatic tone of the poem. Throughout the poem, there is repetition of the word “I”, which shows the narrator’s individual feeling of change in the heart, as he experiences the sight of hundreds of birds fly across the October sky. As the speaker effortlessly recounts the story, it is revealed how deeply personal it is to him. Updike applies the words “flock” and “bird” repetitively to the poem, considering the whole poem is about the sight of seeing so many birds and the effect this has on a person. When the speaker first sees the flock of birds in lines 8-10, alliteration is applied to draw attention to what the narrator is witnessing. In line 29, Updike

Unlike Audubon’s lengthy, complex syntax, Dillard employs a variety of sentence lengths and structures. She uses simple sentences and complex sentences to show the constant movement and rhythm of the birds. Dillard also uses a multitude loose sentences to emphasize her descriptions of the murmuration. For example, she writes, “They seemed to unravel as they flew, lengthening in curves, like a loosened skein,” which allows each additional phrase to deepen her description. Dillard used words such as “strayed… unraveling… sifting… rushing” to describe the murmuration of starlings. These words all create an image of movement and life. She also mentions

Everyday we observe people’s contrasting opinions. Whether it be in politics, school, or in one’s personal life, emotions are often a major factor when it comes to expressing one’s ideas. In writing, an audience must be aware this, and decide for themselves if an author is being bias or equally representing all sides to a situation. In both Into the Wild and In Cold Blood, the authors form distinct opinions about their main characters and believe family structure heavily influenced their future.

     The vivid imagery used throughout the novel allows the reader to have a better idea of what life was like. The summer plowing is said to have a rhythm that is “almost musical,” The stride of a man “matched that of a mule in a one-plane dance down a cotton row with ears of the mule plunging forward then backward in unison with the pull of the forelegs, now the hind legs, as the heavy plow was dragged smoothly through the whispering earth.” This passage allows the reader to imagine the rhythm of the plowing, which makes it seem more real than just saying that the mule plowed up and down the row. All this plowing happened as, “Over and above and beyond and around could be heard bird song.” The imagery of a man plowing in the heat with birds

Diction affects the tone of the passage. Starting from line 14, the diction evolves into a more negative view. He uses biblical reference towards the beginning of the stanza. He begins to analyze his surroundings more rigorously, and sees the differences in how they look from a distance, to how they appear close by. Once this negative connotation has begun, the flock is said to be “paled, pulsed, compressed, distended, yet held an identity firm” (Lines 20-21). The author’s choice of words as in “less marvelous” (line 25) indicates his intention for making his lines definite, giving it a solid state of meaning. It symbolizes that the feeling of someone longing for something, and once they receive it are not as impressed by it. The diction plays a critical role when the tone of the qualities of nature are exposed. The author conveys the “trumpeting” of the geese as an exaltation to the beauty and simplicity of nature. “A cloud appeared, a cloud of dots like iron filings which a magnet underneath the paper undulates” (Lines 16-18). The iron filings in this phrase symbolize the issues the man faces. Once he looks closely at the flock, he realizes that these issues are only miniscule and do not add up to life in general. This elates him, thus concluding him to lift his heart.

The poem The Great Scarf of Birds by John Updike is something of a chronological piece that walks the reader through a day beginning with a normal day of golf that leads to a witness of nature’s beauty and a heart-wrenching, bleak statement of self discovery. The organization of the poem is purely time-based, using cues such as the tinting of the sky to exhibit a passage of time. The diction of the poem is mostly delicate language rife with imagery to try and show the reader the extent of the feelings of wonder that the narrator is holding for nature at this time. Uses of phrases such as “swaying vases of sky,” show the author’s rich language used to describe their surroundings. There is also a line that displays the intensity the author has for the image of the swelling flock above him, “It dartingly darkened in spots darkened in spots paled,pulsed, compressed,distended yet held an identity firm.” This line is set up to be read fast, the closeness of the words leading with hard syllables leads you feel the shock that the narrator is at the sight of the massive, awe inducing flock.

They both are amazed at the numbers of the flock that they observed, stating “in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before” (Passage 1) and then rephrased in “The flight extended like a fluttering banner, an unfurled oriflamme, in either direction as far as I could see.” (Passage 2). The difference between the two writing styles is one uses a direct and straightforward use of tone through phrases like “In the autumn of 1813...from north-east to south-west...I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence” (Passage 1). These phrases show no emotion but simply describe the action or the setting. The other style is the reciprocal of this direct approach, having a childlike curiosity and questioning its surroundings in phrases like “unexpectedness of this beauty...Could tiny birds be sifting through me right now, birds winging through the gaps between my cells, touching nothing, but quickening in my tissues, fleet?” (Passage

Thus, through the initial impression of the man of the bird’s brave and challenging movements by the utilisation of poetic techniques, the reader is able to visualise the bird’s characteristic it inherits and gain a deeper understanding of nature and the impression of humanity distinctively.

In a way, these two stories are similar because both the authors had carefully chosen the words they

Writers such as Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros were greatly influenced by the American culture. "Response to Executive Order 9066" by Dwight Okita, and "Mericans" by Sandra Cisneros both authors establish the topic of American identity. In Okita's poem, American identity has more to do with how you experience culture than with where your family came from. Both Okita's poem and Cisneros's short story show that cultural heritage and physical appearances do not determine what it means to be American.

In a way, these two stories are similar because both the authors had carefully chosen the words

Authors write to be understood and to show others their beliefs. They want to color a picture for you in the words they are writing. John Steinbeck used word choice, parallelism, and foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men in the same way a great artist creates a scene.