Tomson Highway Diction

This book report discusses the plot, significant characters, setting (e.g., time of the story took place, historical background), problems and resolutions, themes or messages of the story. A reflection of the author’s writing style will be presented followed by a conclusion.

“There’s not another road anywhere that looks like this road.” “I mean, exactly like this road.” It’s one kind of place. One of a kind. Like someone’s face.” He does not know where to start and how to stop in his endless confusion. Mike experiences a narcoleptic seizure, falling asleep in the middle of the highway.

While the dog puts its heart and soul into every step it takes, pounding the earth, the coyote “glides” in a “calm, soft-footed trot”. “Glide” implies effortless and graceful movement, perfectly antithetical to the dog’s “furious” gate. Unlike Twain’s prior list of adverse and disturbing traits of the coyote, his description of the coyote’s beautiful gate hints at an intricacy in the predominantly disgusted attitude: awe. Twain did not just acknowledge the existence of the coyote’s incredible speed, he embellished it with imagery and hyperbole, just as he did with the coyote’s hideous countenance. This fervor shows Twain has a strong sense of amazement toward the coyote. Twain described the coyote’s escape from the dog dramatically as a “sudden splitting of a long crack though the atmosphere”, exactly like a gunshot. Clearly the coyote did not break the sound barrier, but Twain’s exaggerated portrayal of the scene proves he was left absolutely flabbergasted. His attitude toward the coyote, thereafter, was that of

Through whom a story is told plays a significant part in how the reader interprets it. This can be used to the author’s advantage to add ambiguity to the characters, making their story more than just black and white. Kelly Link’s “Stone Animals” and Lidia Yuknavitch’s Dora: A Headcase is no exception. It may seem that these two stories have little in common, one being about a house beset by rabbits and the other about a girl suffering from hysteria. When one looks closer at the use of point of view, however, distinct connections appear. Though Link and Yuknavitch employ different points of view in their respective stories, they both use it to discredit their own characters and create doubt about their mental state and reliability. This forces a discussion about psychological trauma and how one attempts to hide it, such as through the blurring of reality, odd behaviors, and an emphasis on nicknames.

In "The Company of Wolves" and "The Courtship of Mr. Lion" Angela Carter conveys that the utilization of female sexuality often causes the females to gain control over the males. To convey this idea, Carter uses similar characters and setting.

Her description of Miles focuses on his charm, innocence and ability to strike passion in her. Mile’s mirror image to a Master leave him addressed as a “little gentleman” and partly hinders his innocence, maturing very quickly. His dress and tone toward the Governess suggest the idea of flattering a lady, which she slowly falls into through his swift “’my dear’ which was constantly on his lips for me.”

The main theme of the poem however, is the sadness and misfortune that accompany us on our journey through life. The Wilson River Road, in which the events of the poem take place, is symbolic of the road of life that we all travel upon. The darkness and the setting of the poem point to the seclusion and indecision that we experience when dealing with life’s tragedies. Many people feel as confused as the narrator does when he was “stumbling back of the car” (5, 911) in his attempt to do the right thing. In his moment of decision, though, the only company the narrator had was the silent and unheeding world around him.

Darius car breaks down, and he is stuck with Nyeki in the middle of the highway.

In order to build a rushed tone, the author incorporates repetition of the words “run” and “ran” to show the fast pace of the speaker and of the poem itself.

In addition to the way that repetition makes the voices and tone of the play musical, I think that it’s also important and, of course, intentional that Highway uses the women’s, origins and locations as the backbone of the play. The four women, each presumably representing one of the four strings

The constant jostling of the RV under her feet kept her awake, even when the sun set low in the Ohio skies, even when the long expanse of highway began to feel like a mattress. Soft snoring from the old husky lying in the passenger’s seat drifted through the muggy vehicle, and Robin felt like doing the same. A black, leather-bound journal was wedged beneath her leg, within reach in case they passed something interesting, like a particularly furry dog or a mildly amusing road sign.

The narrator starts off with Miss Brill taking out her “fur”, something that two characters make fun off. Miss Brill lives a fairly boring life with nothing eventful going on in her life and the only thing she look forward to is going to a concert on Sunday. She observes people, taking pride in the fact she is able to eavesdrop on people’s conversation. During the story she ignores her feelings of loneliness. Miss Brill likes to imagine that her life is a play, something much more interesting than her dull daily life. She even hopes to tell the man she read to that she is an actress. At some point in the story she witnesses a woman being rejected by some man, the woman quickly gains her composure and hides it with a smile. Miss Brill had hoped

Alfred Noyes creates suspense in his poem “The Highway Man” by using various words in repetitious foreboding language. One way he does this is by his constant use of the color red. Noyes wrote “Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair” he also wrote “The landlord's red-lipped daughter”, and many other times (Noyes 3,4). The repetition of the color red seems to forebode the highwayman's and Bess's impending bloody demise, and It also represents the highwayman's and Bess's love for each other. Another way he does this is the use of the word moonlight.

The car ride wasn’t that long, but it felt like forever. Once we got out of my familiar range of York my mind drifted off the anticipation but it still stayed close behind. The music coming from the car was blurred from my lack of attention to it. The sound of my dad’s voice on another business call coming from the front was also put to the side as all my attention was tentatively directed to my phone. Scrolling through feeds and games the log eternity of the car ride drew more intense. Though it was only an hour or two, boredom set in unusually fast. My mom sat quietly in the passenger seat doing the same as I, mindlessly passing the time, ignoring the anticipation. The distinguished right turn that my dad knew not to miss changed to cars gravity to the left shifting everything with it. As we made our way closer to our destination the scenery started to look more like Nebraska than the Mason Dixon Line.

Dexter turned off the main highway onto a narrow dusty road that went on for miles and miles. Scrawny signs, handwritten on torn cardboard then stapled to dilapidated fence posts, showed up every few miles, leading the way. The punishing mess of turns on this desolate road was getting Mae carsick so she leaned against Greg’s shoulder and gazed out the window. “Where are we anyway? Nothing’s even out here. Can you imagine being stuck out here without a GPS to get us back out?”