Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Favorite Phrases from Descriptive Readings
“The wind is terrific out of the west” states Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. The phrase is a fantastic use of the word terrific. Terrific is usually used in describing the goodness of something such as fantastic, excellent, or great! This use of the word really catches the eye and makes the phrase flow in way that it would not otherwise. If it said the wind is strong out of the west, then the phrase would be lacking in the flower and flow.
“The brain analyzed, the brain loves, the brain detects a whiff of pine and is transported to a childhood summer spent at Girl Scout camp in the Poconos, the brain tingles under the caress of a feather. But the brain is silent, dark, and dumb. It feels nothing.” What a great quote from Ackerman. He uses parallelism with the great things the brain can do then contrast is with what the brain is really all about and what else it is. If you took the words the brain out, one would not even know in the second and third sentences that he was referring to the same object as in the first sentence.
Thoreau uses the words Spartan-like and simplicity. Spartan-like is a terrific way to describe the type of living he is suggesting because it allows the reader a glimpse at the life he is painting. Simplicity is a powerful word he invokes many times in the reading. The power he derives from it comes from his repetitious use of it . He uses a form of the word simple multiple times to show the simple life. Life is viewed by him as superficial and it needs to be reduced to rustic style of living.