Comparing and Contrasting "Miriam" and "Children on Their Birthdays"
“I realized that I wanted to be a writer. But I wasn't sure I would be until I was fifteen or so. At that time I had immodestly started sending stories to magazines and literary quarterlies. Of course no writer ever forgets his first acceptance; but one fine day when I was seventeen, I had my first, second, and third, all in the same morning's mail. Oh, I'm here to tell you, dizzy with excitement is no mere phrase!”. Truman Capote wrote a lot of stories, he started writing when he was five years, although he said he was sure of being a writer when he was fifteen. In this essay, I will compare and contrast two of his stories, “Miriam” and “Children on Their Birthdays”, that explore the idea of how extraordinary events break the routines and monotony of ordinary lives,
“Miriam” is the story of an old woman called Mrs. Miller who lives alone in a monotonous way until Miriam, a little girl, appears. On the other hand, “Children on Their Birthdays” is the story of a dusty town where nothing happens, and unexpectedly, Miss Bobbit appears to change the town’s destiny. Some of the concepts that are important in order for me to explain my thesis statement are the following: the archetype, the routine and the ordinary and extraordinary events.
First, an archetype, as defined by the Dictionary Reference, means the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based, is seen in the stories in the way the two little girls break with this archetypical idea that people have about the innocence of a child. Second, a routine, as defined by the Dictionary Reference, means the common place tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specific intervals; typical or everyday activity, is seen in the stories in the way the characters present in them, are somehow plunge in a monotonous life. Third, ordinary events, as defined by the Dictionary Reference, means something of no special quality or interest; common place; unexceptional. These events are seen in the stories in the way that people lives their lives in an expected way, thinking nothing extraordinary canould happen., and tThese extraordinary events, as defined by the Dictionary Reference, means something that goes beyond the usual, regular or establish events, are seen in the stories in the way that there are some events that break with the routinely life of people because it is something that regularly, isn’t expected, it’s a surprise.
“Miriam” and “Children on Their Birthdays” have some common elements that can be compare. For example, the idea of the archetypical little girl, a lovely and kind little girl, full of innocence, that never gets in trouble, everyone loves her, etc. This idea is broken by the author in the way that he plays with this impression people has and twist the roles, so, this little innocent girl, will be evil as Miriam is, or could be like an adult trapped in a kid’s body, as Miss Bobbit is. Miriam, the little girl present in “Miriam”, is someone that likes to play with Mrs. Miller, she bothers her so much that Mrs. Miller gets desperate because of her presence. Miriam always appears to Mrs. Miller to make her life miserable, “I live upstairs and there’s a little girl visiting me, and I supposed that I’m afraid of her. She won’t leave and I can’t make her and –she’s going to do something terrible. She’s already stolen my cameo, but she’s about to do something worse –something terrible!” (Capote, 48). This quote shows how Mrs. Miller was tired of Miriam because she couldn’t understand her appearances; she was getting crazy because of Miriam.
On the other hand, in “Children on Their Birthdays”, a little girl appears in a dusty town where nothing extraordinary happens and that event, makes people in town gets curious about what can happen with her. Her name is Miss Bobbit, and she is a girl who behaves as a grown up but trapped in a child’s body, “…“My mother is a very fine seamstress; she has made dresses for the society of many cities and towns, including Memphis and Tallahassee. No doubt you have noticed and admired the dress I am wearing. Every stitch of it was hand-sewn by my mother. My mother can copy any pattern, and just recently she won a twenty-five-dollar prize from the Ladies’ Home Journal. My mother can also crochet, knit and embroider. If you want any kind of sewing done, please come to my mother. Please advise your friends and family. Thank you.” And then with a rustle and a swish, she was gone” (Capote, 137). In this quote, we can see how Miss Bobbit talks, if we don’t know she is a little girl, she can be easily confused with an adult. That is how Capote plays with this archetype of an innocent little girl, making the reader thinks about if she is really innocent or not.
These two stories are also related in the way these little girls breaks the routine people have. Miriam, on the one hand, appears to Mrs. Miller to make her conscious about her life and her lost of identity because of the routine she follows. This makes Mrs. Miller gets desperate because of how Miriam appears every day at any time, either she tries to get rid of her, she comes back. Mrs. Miller has a very monotonous life, she has plans for every week, and these appearances of Miriam will help her to find her identity once again, as she hads lost it because of her routinely life. On the other hand, Miss Bobbit appears in this small town of Alabama and makes people change their lives in the way that everyone want to be like her and with her, because she is very different from the whole people who lives there. These visits of Miss Bobbit will make people think about their own lives and how they are plunge in routines and they do nothing for that. In the case of Miriam, with her intensity, she will make Mrs. Miller realizes about her boring life and about the way she had lost her identity because of being part of the mass of people instead of being someone else, someone who stands out between people. ““… For the only thing she had lost to Miriam was her identity, but now she knew she had found again the person who lived in this room, who cooked her own meals, who owned a canary, who was someone she could trust and believe in: Mrs. H. T. Miller” (Capote, 49). Also, Miss Bobbit makes people understand how they can do different things so they won’t be just part of theanother mass who lives in a routinely world. Although she dies, her death helps in the way that people wake up from the dream they were having of perfection because of the life they were having where nothing ever happens. Of course Billy Bob and Preacher, the two guys that fell in love with her and fight for her, will be friends no longer, but they fell down in the her game because of being different.
In both stories, the way of writing is similar, Capote uses very detailed scenes to make the reader feels the atmosphere and imagines it. For example, for the characterization, Capote uses direct and indirect characterization for both stories. For “Miriam”, for example, she uses direct characterization, giving concrete characteristics of the character, for describing how Miriam looks like: “Her hair was the longest and strangest Mrs. Miller had ever seen; absolutely silver-white, like an albino’s. It flowed waist-length in smooth, loose lines. She was a simple, special elegance in the way she stood with her thumbs in the pockets of a tailored plum-velvet coat” (Capote, 38). But also he uses it in “Children on Their Birthdays” for describing how Miss Bobbit looks like: “…for out of the red road dust appeared Miss Bobbit. A wiry little girl in a starched, lemon colored party dress, she sassed along with a grown-up mince, one hand on her hip, the other supporting a spinsterish umbrella.” (Capote, 135).
Capote also uses indirect characterization, which means a description of the character’s personality or information through actions, words, thoughts, in “Miriam” is seen, for example where Capote expresses what Mrs. Miller do, “Her activities were seldom spontaneous: she kept the two rooms immaculate, smoked an occasional cigarette, prepared her own meals and tended a canary” (Capote,37). And on the other hand, in “Children of Their Birthdays” it is also seen when Miss Bobbit talks and acts: “Miss Bobbit came tearing across the road, her finger wagging like a metronome; like a schoolteacher she clapped her hands, stamped a foot, said: “It is well-known fact that gentlemen are punt on the face of this earth for the protection of ladies. Do you suppose boys behave this way in towns like Memphis, New York, London, Hollywood or Paris?”…” (Capote, 142).
Finally, we can say that the visits of these two girls were unexpected but, in a certain way, required, because they were extraordinary events that breaks with an ordinary life, full of routines and boring events, and this helps people realized about how boring can be a monotonous life could be, in which whatever that couldan happen is known, that the unexpected things will never happen. I think that as Capote lived in a routinely life, being extraordinary because of his natural talent on writing but having no one that realizes that, madkes him wroite about the importance of breaking the routine and appreciates the many little things that someone can have or do, to make every day be as if it was the last one.
Bibliography:
Dictionary Reference. 2011. June 21th 2011 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/archetype>.
Dictionary Reference. 2011. June 21th 2011 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ordinary>.
Dictionary Reference. 2011. June 21th 2011 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/routine>.
Dictionary Reference. 2011. June 21th 2011 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extraordinary>.
Capote, Truman. The complete stories of Truman Capote. New York: Vintage Internacional, 2005.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Literary elements present in "Children on Their Birthdays"
Theme – First love
Characters – Miss Bobbit, Sister Rosalba, Aunt El, Billy Bobby, Cora McCall, Mrs. Sawyer, Ollie Overton, Mr. Henderson, Manny Fox, Miss Adelaide, and Mr. Buster Riley
Characterization –
Introduction: There is a town, where nothing ever happens and then, a little girl called Miss Bobbit arrives.
Conflict: All the guys fall in love with her.
Climax: Miss Bobbit finds a little girl from Africa, Sister Rosalba, who is as different as Miss Bobbit is in the town
Anticlimax: The boys fight for Miss Bobbit, a friendship that seems so strong, is broken by this little girl
End: A bus ran over Miss Bobbit
Causality – As Miss Bobbit was so different, all the boys fell in love with her
Foreshadowing – Circular story, you know the end as it is said in the beginning
Mood - Drama
Resolution/Denouement – Miss Bobbit’s death makes everyone return to their lives and makes them stop thinking about a change and the extraordinary things.
Setting –Small town in Alabama
Characters – Miss Bobbit, Sister Rosalba, Aunt El, Billy Bobby, Cora McCall, Mrs. Sawyer, Ollie Overton, Mr. Henderson, Manny Fox, Miss Adelaide, and Mr. Buster Riley
Characterization –
- Direct: “…for out of the red road dust appeared Miss Bobbit. A wiry little girl in a starched, lemon colored party dress, she sassed along with a grown-up mince, one hand on her hip, the other supporting a spinsterish umbrella.” (Capote, 135)
- Indirect: “…“My mother is a very fine seamstress; she has made dresses for the society of many cities and towns, including Memphis and Tallahassee. No doubt you have noticed and admired the dress I am wearing. Every stitch of it was hand-sewn by my mother. My mother can copy any pattern, and just recently she won a twenty-five-dollar prize from the Ladies’ Home Journal. My mother can also crochet, knit and embroider. If you want any kind of sewing done, please come to my mother. Please advise your friends and family. Thank you.” And then with a rustle and a swish, she was gone.” (Capote, 137)
Introduction: There is a town, where nothing ever happens and then, a little girl called Miss Bobbit arrives.
Conflict: All the guys fall in love with her.
Climax: Miss Bobbit finds a little girl from Africa, Sister Rosalba, who is as different as Miss Bobbit is in the town
Anticlimax: The boys fight for Miss Bobbit, a friendship that seems so strong, is broken by this little girl
End: A bus ran over Miss Bobbit
Causality – As Miss Bobbit was so different, all the boys fell in love with her
Foreshadowing – Circular story, you know the end as it is said in the beginning
Mood - Drama
Resolution/Denouement – Miss Bobbit’s death makes everyone return to their lives and makes them stop thinking about a change and the extraordinary things.
Setting –Small town in Alabama
Point of View – third person
Narrator – omniscient
Capote, Truman. The complete stories of Truman Capote. New York: Vintage Internacional, 2005.
Narrator – omniscient
Capote, Truman. The complete stories of Truman Capote. New York: Vintage Internacional, 2005.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Literary elements present in "Miriam"
Theme – The consciousness of people
Characters - Mrs. Miller, Miriam.
Characterization – The story has two types of characterization; on the one hand, direct characterization as seen in Miriam’s first description:.
Plot –
Foreshadowing – Miriam appears
Mood - Suspense
Resolution/Denouement – Mrs. Miller finds herself again, her identity
Narrator – Limited omniscient: All-knowing narrator about one or two characters, but not all
Personification - Miriam
Characters - Mrs. Miller, Miriam.
Characterization – The story has two types of characterization; on the one hand, direct characterization as seen in Miriam’s first description:.
- “Her hair was the longest and strangest Mrs. Miller had ever seen; absolutely silver-white, like an albino’s. It flowed waist-length in smooth, loose lines. She was a simple, special elegance in the way she stood with her thumbs in the pockets of a tailored plum-velvet coat” (Capote, 38)
- “Her activities were seldom spontaneous: she kept the two rooms immaculate, smoked an occasional cigarette, prepared her own meals and tended a canary” (Capote,37)
Plot –
- Introduction: Mrs. Miller lives alone in a house, where she has a routinely life. She had plans for every day; it was the same plan for each week.
- Conflict: Someday, Mrs. Miller goes to the movies where she finds a little girl that calls her attention, asking her if she could buy a ticket for her.
- Climax: Since that day in the movies, Miriam starts visiting Mrs. Miller; she arrives at Mrs. Millers’s house and from that day on, Miriam appears to Mrs. Miller every day, making her become tired of those visits because they break with her routine.
- Anticlimax: This happens when Mrs. Miller tells Miriam to go away from her house, letting her alone for her to continue with the routine.
- End: It seems that Miriam disappeared and she wouldn’t come back, but when Mrs. Miller was already calm down, Miriam reappears.
Foreshadowing – Miriam appears
Mood - Suspense
Resolution/Denouement – Mrs. Miller finds herself again, her identity
- “… For the only thing she had lost to Miriam was her identity, but now she knew she had found again the person who lived in this room, who cooked her own meals, who owned a canary, who was someone she could trust and believe in: Mrs. H. T. Miller” (Capote, 49)
- “Mrs. Miler entered her apartment softly; she walked to the center of the room and stood quite still. No, in a sense it had not changed: the roses, the cake, and the cherries were in place. But this was an empty room, emptier than if the furnishings and familiars were not present, lifeless and petrified as a funeral parlor. The sofa loomed before her with a new strangeness: its vacancy had a meaning that would have been less penetrating and terrible had Miriam been curled on it” (Capote, 4 9)
Narrator – Limited omniscient: All-knowing narrator about one or two characters, but not all
Personification - Miriam
Symbolism – Miriam symbolizes death
Capote, Truman. The complete stories of Truman Capote. New York: Vintage Internacional, 2005.
Capote, Truman. The complete stories of Truman Capote. New York: Vintage Internacional, 2005.
Truman Capote's Questions
a. What is “Miriam” about? Did you like it? Why or why not? What elements did you enjoy the most? Why?
b. What are the articles about? What generalizations can you make of what you have read?
c. From what you have read so far, what do you think are Capote’s most important features? Why?
“Miriam” by Truman Capote reports the idea of Mrs. Miller’s life and how her consciousness appears as a little girl, Miriam. Mrs. Miller is an old woman who lives alone in a boring routine, so Miriam appears to break this monotony and to show Mrs. Miller how her life is and how she should be aware of what is happening to her.
I didn’t like this story because although it has many details that don’t let you stop reading it, it is so fictional that it can become a little bit boring. As I said before, the idea of the character development, how he describes the characters, gets you involved in the story.
On the other hand, the articles about Truman Capote talk about how he writes, his written works and all the story of how he becomes famous. In general, Truman Capote has a natural talent for writing, he did his first writing when he was five years old and since then, he wrote during all his life.
Truman Capote writes in a very particular way, he uses many details for explaining the characters and the atmospheres, and these descriptions being so long, keep the reader’s attention, so he/she won’t be able to stop reading. Capote also describes the characters by showing examples instead of telling how they really are, what makes the reader’s mind imagine them.
In the stories he writes, he uses many elements of syntax, such as the length of the sentences or the changes in the tenses for the story not to be boring, but a different kind of text. These elements he uses are very important because that is what makes different the stories regarding other authors.
b. What are the articles about? What generalizations can you make of what you have read?
c. From what you have read so far, what do you think are Capote’s most important features? Why?
“Miriam” by Truman Capote reports the idea of Mrs. Miller’s life and how her consciousness appears as a little girl, Miriam. Mrs. Miller is an old woman who lives alone in a boring routine, so Miriam appears to break this monotony and to show Mrs. Miller how her life is and how she should be aware of what is happening to her.
I didn’t like this story because although it has many details that don’t let you stop reading it, it is so fictional that it can become a little bit boring. As I said before, the idea of the character development, how he describes the characters, gets you involved in the story.
On the other hand, the articles about Truman Capote talk about how he writes, his written works and all the story of how he becomes famous. In general, Truman Capote has a natural talent for writing, he did his first writing when he was five years old and since then, he wrote during all his life.
Truman Capote writes in a very particular way, he uses many details for explaining the characters and the atmospheres, and these descriptions being so long, keep the reader’s attention, so he/she won’t be able to stop reading. Capote also describes the characters by showing examples instead of telling how they really are, what makes the reader’s mind imagine them.
In the stories he writes, he uses many elements of syntax, such as the length of the sentences or the changes in the tenses for the story not to be boring, but a different kind of text. These elements he uses are very important because that is what makes different the stories regarding other authors.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Literary Elements
Short Stories/Novel
Theme - The idea or point of a story formulated as a generalization. In American literature, several themes are evident which reflect and define our society. The dominant ones might be innocence/experience, life/death, appearance/reality, free will/fate, madness/sanity, love/hate, society/individual, known/unknown. Themes may have a single, instead of a dual nature as well. The theme of a story may be a mid-life crisis, or imagination, or the duality of humankind (contradictions).
Character - Imaginary people created by the writer. Perhaps the most important element of literature.
Protagonist - Major character at the center of the story.
Antagonist - A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Minor character - 0ften provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
Static character - A character who remains the same.
Dynamic character - A character who changes in some important way.
Characterization - The means by which writers reveal character.
Explicit Judgment - Narrator gives facts and interpretive comment.
Implied Judgment - Narrator gives description; reader make the judgment.
Look for: Connections, links, and clues between and about characters. Ask yourself what the function and significance of each character is. Make this determination based upon the character's history, what the reader is told (and not told), and what other characters say about themselves and others.
Plot - The arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story.
Causality - One event occurs because of another event.
Foreshadowing - A suggestion of what is going to happen.
Suspense - A sense of worry established by the author.
Conflict - Struggle between opposing forces.
Exposition - Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
Complication or Rising Action - Intensification of conflict.
Crisis - Turning point; moment of great tension that fixes the action.
Resolution/Denouement - The way the story turns out.
Structure - The design or form of the completed action. Often provides clues to character and action. Can even philosophically mirror the author's intentions, especially if it is unusual.
Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue, description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.
Setting - The place or location of the action, the setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters.
Point of View - Again, the point of view can sometimes indirectly establish the author's intentions. Point of view pertains to who tells the story and how it is told.
Narrator - The person telling the story.
First-person - Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
Objective - Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character's perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
Omniscient - All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator takes us into the character and can evaluate a character for the reader (editorial omniscience). When a narrator allows the reader to make his or her own judgments from the action of the characters themselves, it is called neutral omniscience.
Limited omniscient - All-knowing narrator about one or two characters, but not all.
Language and Style - Style is the verbal identity of a writer, oftentimes based on the author's use of diction (word choice) and syntax (the order of words in a sentence). A writer's use of language reveals his or her tone, or the attitude toward the subject matter.
Irony - A contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another.
Verbal irony - We understand the opposite of what the speaker says.
Irony of Circumstance or Situational Irony - When one event is expected to occur but the opposite happens. A discrepancy between what seems to be and what is.
Dramatic Irony - Discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know.
Ironic Vision - An overall tone of irony that pervades a work, suggesting how the writer views the characters.
Poetry
Allegory - A form of narrative in which people, places, and events seem to have hidden meanings. Often a retelling of an older story.
Connotation - The implied meaning of a word.
Denotation - The dictionary definition of a word.
Diction - Word choice and usage (for example, formal vs. informal), as determined by considerations of audience and purpose.
Figurative Language - The use of words to suggest meanings beyond the literal. There are a number of figures of speech. Some of the more common ones are:
Metaphor - Making a comparison between unlike things without the use of a verbal clue (such as "like" or "as").
Simile - Making a comparison between unlike things, using "like" or "as".
Hyperbole - Exaggeration
Personification - Endowing inanimate objects with human characteristics
Imagery - A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea which appeals to one or more of our senses. Look for a pattern of imagery.
Tactile imagery - sense of touch.
Aural imagery - sense of hearing.
Olfactory imagery - sense of smell.
Visual imagery - sense of sight.
Gustatory imagery - sense of taste.
Rhythm and Meter - Rhythm is the pulse or beat in a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of an accent or stress. Meter is the measure or patterned count of a poetry line (a count of the stresses we feel in a poem's rhythm). The unit of poetic meter in English is called a "foot," a unit of measure consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables. Ask yourself how the rhythm and meter affects the tone and meaning.
Sound - Do the words rhyme? Is there alliteration (repetition of consonants) or assonance (repetition of vowels)? How does this affect the tone?
Structure - The pattern of organization of a poem. For example, a sonnet is a 14-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter. Because the sonnet is strictly constrained, it is considered a closed or fixed form. An open or free form is a poem in which the author uses a looser form, or perhaps one of his or her own invention. It is not necessarily formless.
Symbolism - When objects or actions mean more than themselves.
Syntax - Sentence structure and word order.
Voice: Speaker and Tone - The voice that conveys the poem's tone; its implied attitude toward its subject.
College, Roane State Community. The Online Writing Lab (OWL). s.f. June 17th 2011 <http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/ElementsLit.html>.
Theme - The idea or point of a story formulated as a generalization. In American literature, several themes are evident which reflect and define our society. The dominant ones might be innocence/experience, life/death, appearance/reality, free will/fate, madness/sanity, love/hate, society/individual, known/unknown. Themes may have a single, instead of a dual nature as well. The theme of a story may be a mid-life crisis, or imagination, or the duality of humankind (contradictions).
Character - Imaginary people created by the writer. Perhaps the most important element of literature.
Protagonist - Major character at the center of the story.
Antagonist - A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Minor character - 0ften provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
Static character - A character who remains the same.
Dynamic character - A character who changes in some important way.
Characterization - The means by which writers reveal character.
Explicit Judgment - Narrator gives facts and interpretive comment.
Implied Judgment - Narrator gives description; reader make the judgment.
Look for: Connections, links, and clues between and about characters. Ask yourself what the function and significance of each character is. Make this determination based upon the character's history, what the reader is told (and not told), and what other characters say about themselves and others.
Plot - The arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story.
Causality - One event occurs because of another event.
Foreshadowing - A suggestion of what is going to happen.
Suspense - A sense of worry established by the author.
Conflict - Struggle between opposing forces.
Exposition - Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
Complication or Rising Action - Intensification of conflict.
Crisis - Turning point; moment of great tension that fixes the action.
Resolution/Denouement - The way the story turns out.
Structure - The design or form of the completed action. Often provides clues to character and action. Can even philosophically mirror the author's intentions, especially if it is unusual.
Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue, description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.
Setting - The place or location of the action, the setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters.
Point of View - Again, the point of view can sometimes indirectly establish the author's intentions. Point of view pertains to who tells the story and how it is told.
Narrator - The person telling the story.
First-person - Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
Objective - Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character's perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
Omniscient - All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator takes us into the character and can evaluate a character for the reader (editorial omniscience). When a narrator allows the reader to make his or her own judgments from the action of the characters themselves, it is called neutral omniscience.
Limited omniscient - All-knowing narrator about one or two characters, but not all.
Language and Style - Style is the verbal identity of a writer, oftentimes based on the author's use of diction (word choice) and syntax (the order of words in a sentence). A writer's use of language reveals his or her tone, or the attitude toward the subject matter.
Irony - A contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another.
Verbal irony - We understand the opposite of what the speaker says.
Irony of Circumstance or Situational Irony - When one event is expected to occur but the opposite happens. A discrepancy between what seems to be and what is.
Dramatic Irony - Discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know.
Ironic Vision - An overall tone of irony that pervades a work, suggesting how the writer views the characters.
Poetry
Allegory - A form of narrative in which people, places, and events seem to have hidden meanings. Often a retelling of an older story.
Connotation - The implied meaning of a word.
Denotation - The dictionary definition of a word.
Diction - Word choice and usage (for example, formal vs. informal), as determined by considerations of audience and purpose.
Figurative Language - The use of words to suggest meanings beyond the literal. There are a number of figures of speech. Some of the more common ones are:
Metaphor - Making a comparison between unlike things without the use of a verbal clue (such as "like" or "as").
Simile - Making a comparison between unlike things, using "like" or "as".
Hyperbole - Exaggeration
Personification - Endowing inanimate objects with human characteristics
Imagery - A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea which appeals to one or more of our senses. Look for a pattern of imagery.
Tactile imagery - sense of touch.
Aural imagery - sense of hearing.
Olfactory imagery - sense of smell.
Visual imagery - sense of sight.
Gustatory imagery - sense of taste.
Rhythm and Meter - Rhythm is the pulse or beat in a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of an accent or stress. Meter is the measure or patterned count of a poetry line (a count of the stresses we feel in a poem's rhythm). The unit of poetic meter in English is called a "foot," a unit of measure consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables. Ask yourself how the rhythm and meter affects the tone and meaning.
Sound - Do the words rhyme? Is there alliteration (repetition of consonants) or assonance (repetition of vowels)? How does this affect the tone?
Structure - The pattern of organization of a poem. For example, a sonnet is a 14-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter. Because the sonnet is strictly constrained, it is considered a closed or fixed form. An open or free form is a poem in which the author uses a looser form, or perhaps one of his or her own invention. It is not necessarily formless.
Symbolism - When objects or actions mean more than themselves.
Syntax - Sentence structure and word order.
Voice: Speaker and Tone - The voice that conveys the poem's tone; its implied attitude toward its subject.
College, Roane State Community. The Online Writing Lab (OWL). s.f. June 17th 2011 <http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/ElementsLit.html>.
Analysis video
The video of Truman Capote, first begins with him talking about calling a lawyer because of all the jokes the rest of the people told about him (other videos) so here, it is shown how he uses the daily events or his own life to tell jokes about people and facts. He is the “Man of the week”, and he is trying to make people laugh about daily events that we did not notice at all.
Analysis interview
This interview to Truman Capote, starts with the story of how he began to write when he was ten or eleven and that his first, second and third acceptances were from short stories that for him, is the most exciting writing style. He talks about the way to write short stories, he gives some examples and then he talks about the encouragements he had for writing.
Capote says that when he reads one of his first works, “Other Voices, Other Rooms” he doesn’t feel he is the same person as he was in that time, it has the same intensity but as he grew older, his mentality and interior temperature are extremely different, so he feels as a total stranger to that book.
Capote talks about the way he writes and how the environment or emotions he has influences his writing works and how when he lived in Europe, it helped him to grow up but he will always return home because that is where he belongs. He also talks about his work in films, how he works in a funny way.
He talks about how he writes, “I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy” and names himself as a stylist while writing because he writes in pencil and proofreads also in pencil but becoming obsessed with grammar issues, as comas or semicolons. After doing this, he types the work in a specific yellow paper, while he’s still lying down, and after doing it he puts the manuscript away for a while and in a certain time he reads it to see what he wants to change. Capote has the whole book in his head; the beginning, the middle and the end, but surprises happen, unexpected words or sentences that give a certain difference to each story.
He finishes the interview by saying that criticism helps before being published; once it is published the only thing he wants to hear is good things about the story. Finally, the “superstitiousness” he has
“I have to add up all numbers: there are some people I never telephone because their number adds up to an unlucky figure. Or I won't accept a hotel room for the same reason. I will not tolerate the presence of yellow roses—which is sad because they're my favorite flower. I can't allow three cigarette butts in the same ashtray. Won't travel on a plane with two nuns. Won't begin or end anything on a Friday. It's endless, the things I can't and won't. But I derive some curious comfort from obeying these primitive concepts.”
Capote says that when he reads one of his first works, “Other Voices, Other Rooms” he doesn’t feel he is the same person as he was in that time, it has the same intensity but as he grew older, his mentality and interior temperature are extremely different, so he feels as a total stranger to that book.
Capote talks about the way he writes and how the environment or emotions he has influences his writing works and how when he lived in Europe, it helped him to grow up but he will always return home because that is where he belongs. He also talks about his work in films, how he works in a funny way.
He talks about how he writes, “I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy” and names himself as a stylist while writing because he writes in pencil and proofreads also in pencil but becoming obsessed with grammar issues, as comas or semicolons. After doing this, he types the work in a specific yellow paper, while he’s still lying down, and after doing it he puts the manuscript away for a while and in a certain time he reads it to see what he wants to change. Capote has the whole book in his head; the beginning, the middle and the end, but surprises happen, unexpected words or sentences that give a certain difference to each story.
He finishes the interview by saying that criticism helps before being published; once it is published the only thing he wants to hear is good things about the story. Finally, the “superstitiousness” he has
“I have to add up all numbers: there are some people I never telephone because their number adds up to an unlucky figure. Or I won't accept a hotel room for the same reason. I will not tolerate the presence of yellow roses—which is sad because they're my favorite flower. I can't allow three cigarette butts in the same ashtray. Won't travel on a plane with two nuns. Won't begin or end anything on a Friday. It's endless, the things I can't and won't. But I derive some curious comfort from obeying these primitive concepts.”
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