Style AnAlySiS

From the time that children begin to respond to the playful inversions of Dr. Seuss (“I do not like you, Sam I am”) through the tumbling phrases and clauses by which Poe develops tension in “The Cask of Amontillado” to the rapidity of the Middle Passage section of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, students are influenced by syntax. One of the goals of the AP class is to transform this unconscious understanding into conscious knowledge that will evolve into more sophisticated critical reading and writing skills. It is essential to remember that syntax must be examined as to how it contributes to and enhances meaning and effect.

Syntax should not be studied in isolation but in conjunction with other stylistic techniques that work together to develop meaning.

At its simplest level, syntax consists of sentence structure, but analysis of style and meaning never relies on one concept alone. Syntax should not be studied in isolation, but rather it should be examined in conjunction with other stylistic techniques that work together to develop meaning.

Style AnAlySiS

At least five areas can be considered when analyzing style:

Diction

Syntax

Figurative language

imagery

treatment of Subject Matter

DICTION

Describe diction (choice of words) by considering the following:

Words can be monosyllabic or polysyllabic. The higher the ratio of polysyllabic words, the more difficult the content.

Words can be mainly colloquial (slang), informal (conversational), formal (literary), or old-fashioned.

Words can be mainly denotative (e.g., dress) or connotative (e.g., gown).

Words can be concrete (specific) or abstract (general or conceptual).

Words can be euphonious (pleasant sounding), or cacophonous (harsh sounding).

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SYNTAX

Describe the sentence structure by considering the following:

1. Examine the sentence length. Are the sentences telegraphic (less than 5 words), short (approximately five words), medium (approximately 18 words), or long and involved (30 words or more)?

2. Examine the sentence beginnings. Is there a good variety or does a pattern emerge?

3. Examine the arrangement of ideas in a sentence. Are they set out in a special way for a purpose?

4. Examine the arrangement of ideas in a paragraph. Is there evidence of any pattern or structure?

5. Examine the sentence patterns. Some elements to consider are:

Sentence types (by their purpose): declarative, imperative, interrogative, or exclamatory.

Sentence types (by structure): simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, compound-complex sentence.

Sophisticated sentence structures: loose sentence, periodic sentence, balanced sentence, natural order, inverted order, split order, juxtaposition, parallel structure (parallelism), repetition, rhetorical questions.

Sample Sentences to Consider:

Next morning when the first light came into the sky and the sparrows stirred in the trees, when the cows rattled their chains and the rooster crowed and the early automobiles went whispering along the road, Wilbur awoke and looked for Charlotte.

E.B. White Charlotte’s Web

Col. Grangerford was very tall and very slim, and had a darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it anywheres; he was clean-shaved every morning all over his thin face, and he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and a high nose, and heavy eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so deep back that they seemed like they was looking out of caverns at you, as you may say.

Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was not only a little after two o’clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach. The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and there must have been a small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark blue stain like a splodge of ink. The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man.

Daphne DuMaurier Jamaica Inn

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FIGURATIVE lANGUAGE

Describe the author’s use of figurative language by considering the following:

1. Simile 9. Metaphor 2. Personification 10. Hyperbole 3. Litotes (meiosis) 11. Paradox 4. Oxymoron 12. Pun 5. Irony 13. Sarcasm 6. Antithesis 14. Apostrophe 7. Allusion 15. Synecdoche 8. Metonymy

NOTE: It is important in analysis that you not only be aware of the figurative language the author uses, but also why the author has chosen to use it.

iMAGERY

Imagery deals specifically with the five senses. When analyzing an author’s use of imagery, consider how the author uses specific images to appeal to the reader and create sense impressions.

METHOD & MEANING

When analyzing style, the goal is not simply to identify the methods (diction, syntax, treatment of subject matter, figurative language, imagery) but to analyze the effectiveness of those methods and how the individual methods work together to create meaning (tone, mood, theme, etc.). The goal of your analysis is always meaning. If the majority of your analysis is listing methods, it is not an effective analysis.

tREATMENT of

SUBJECT MATTER

Describe the author’s treatment of subject matter by considering the following:

Has the author been subjective? Are his conclusions based on opinions; are they personal in nature?

Has the author been objective? Are his conclusions based on facts? Are they impersonal or scientific in nature?

Has the author been supportive of his main idea? If so, how did he support his claims? Did he:

a. state his opinions b. report his experiences c. report observations d. refer to readings e. use statistical data?

MetHOD

Diction, Syntax, Treatment of Subject Matter, Figurative Language, Imagery

MeAninG

Tone, Mood, Theme, Narrative Pace, Point of View, Effect, Argument, etc.

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STYLE ANALYSIS PRACTICE

A writer’s style is his or her distinctive way of writing. Every writer uses the components of language (diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery), arranging and manipulating them so that language produces the effect the writer desires.

A writer’s style can be analyzed and explained. Enjoying the written word without analyzing the writer’s style is like listening to music you love without understanding its underlying structure. You appreciate the music for its beauty, or its beat, or its harmony, etc. But you will appreciate the music more if you understand how it was produced by the musician. To understand how Jimi Hendrix created new ways of playing the guitar or how The Dave Mathews Band developed new melodies and harmonies will lend a new appreciation for the sound. In the same way, finding patterns of diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery will lend a new appreciation to all types of writing.

The following two passages both deal with ants, but are written in very different styles. Each passage has been broken down into four components of style: diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery. Each of these components have been linked to the tone of the passage.

REMEMBER: It is not enough to simply recognize patterns of syntax or types of figurative language in a passage. That is certainly the first step, and a fairly demanding one. But to truly analyze an author’s style, you will have to connect the syntax or figurative language to the meaning (the tone of the passage).

Passage 1 From The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

1. Ants. 2. We were walking on, surrounded, enclosed, enveloped, being eaten by ants. 3. Every surface was covered and boiling, and the path like black flowing lava in the moonlight. 4. Dark, bulbous tree trunks seethed and bulged. 5. The grass had become a field of dark daggers standing upright, churning and crumpling in on themselves. 6. We walked on ants and ran on them, releasing their vinegary smell to the weird, quiet night. 7. Hardly anyone spoke. 8. We just ran as fast as we could alongside our neighbors. 9. Adults carried babies and goats; children carried pots of food and dogs and younger brothers and sisters, the whole village of Kilanga. 10. I thought of Mama Mwanza: would her sluggish sons carry her? 11. Crowded together we moved down the road like a rushing steam, ran till we reached the river, and there we stopped. 12. All of us shifting from foot to foot, slapping, some people moaning in pain but only babies shrieking and wailing out loud. 13. Strong men sloshed in slow motion through waist-deep water, dragging their boats, while the rest of us waited our turn to get in someone’s canoe…

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Example Analysis: Diction Kingsolver uses vivid words, especially verbs and participles:

• “seethed and bulged” (4) • “churning and crumpling” (5) • “shifting…slapping…moaning… shrieking and wailing” (12) • “sloshed…dragging” (13)

She uses many words which have an alliterative effect, emphasizing the terror and desperation that enveloped the family in this passage:

• “bulbous…bulged” (4) • “dark daggers”; “churning and crumpling” (5) • “sluggish sons” (10) • “rushing…ran…river” (11) • “shifting…slapping…shrieking” (12) • “Strong…sloshed…slow”; “waist-deep water…while…waited" (13)

Syntax: The passage contains many participles and verbs in parallel structure:

• “surrounded, enclosed, enveloped, being eaten” (2) • “seethed and bulged” (4) • “standing…churning…crumpling” (5) • “walked…ran” (11) • “shifting…slapping…moaning… shrieking…wailing” (12)

The passage contains sentence fragments:

• “Ants.” (1) • “All of us shifting from foot to foot, slapping, some people moaning in pain but

only babies shrieking and wailing out loud.” (12) Polysyndeton slows the pace:

• “Adults carried babies and goats; children carried pots of food and dogs and young brothers and sisters, the whole village of Kilanga.” (9)

Kingsolver uses short, abrupt sentences for emphasis:

• “Ants.” (1) • “Dark, bulbous tree trunks seethed and bulged.” (4) • “Hardly anyone spoke.” (7)

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Kingsolver uses ellipsis and asyndeton as if in the terror of the moment the character cannot think clearly.

• “We were walking on, surrounded, enclosed, enveloped, being eaten by ants.” (2) • “Every surface was covered and boiling, and the path like black flowing lava in

the moonlight.” (3) • “All of us shifting from foot to foot, slapping, some people moaning in pain but

only babies shrieking and wailing out loud.” (12) The first half of the paragraph contains only simple sentences or fragments.

(1) “Ants.” (2) “We were walking on, surrounded, enclosed, enveloped, being eaten by ants.” (3) “Every surface was covered and boiling, and the path like black flowing lava in

the moonlight.” (4) “Dark, bulbous tree trunks seethed and bulged.” (5) “The grass had become a field of dark daggers standing upright, churning and

crumpling in on themselves.” (6) “We walked on ants and ran on them, releasing their vinegary smell to the

weird, quiet night.” (7) “Hardly anyone spoke.”

The second half of the paragraph contains compound and complex sentences.

(8) Complex (9) Compound (10) Compound (11) Compound-complex (12) Fragment (13) Complex

Figurative Language

• The path was “like black flowing lava in the moonlight” – simile (3) • The grass was a “field of dark daggers standing upright” – metaphor (5) • The ants had a “vinegary smell” – metaphor (6) • The people moved down the road “like a rushing streams” – simile (11)

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Imagery The predominant images are of being trapped, heat and movement, and weapons. Images of being trapped:

• “surrounded, enclosed, enveloped” (2) • “crowded together” (11)

Images of heat and movement:

• “Every surface was covered and boiling, and the path like black flowing lava” (3) • “tree trunks seethed and bulged” (4) • “churning and crumpling in on themselves” (5) • “walked…ran” (6) • “rushing stream” (11) • “shifting…slapping…moaning… shrieking…wailing” (12) • “sloshed…dragging” (13)

Images of weapons:

• “grass had become a field of dark daggers” (5) Tone All these elements in this passage combine to produce a tone of controlled chaos. The passage is a mixture of both control and chaos, rhetorically speaking. Some elements illustrate rhetorical control:

• The compact simple sentences • The parallel participles and verbs • The abundant sound devices

Other elements introduce a note of desperation and chaotic activity:

• The fragments • The abrupt short sentences • The ellipsis

Most interesting is the fact that the first half of the paragraph is composed of simple sentences, as if the narrator was struggling to maintain control, thinking short, simple thoughts. Then the second half of the passage contains complex and compound sentences, as the people start to run in panic. The sentences lengthen in this part of the passage, and the fragment indicates their panic.

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Passage 2 From The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher By Lewis Thomas 1. A gallery in New York exhibited a collection of two million live army ants, on loan from Central America, in a one-colony show entitled “Patterns and Structures.” 2. They were displayed on sand in a huge square bin, walled by plastic sides high enough to prevent them from crawling over and out into Manhattan. 3. The inventor of the work, Alan Sonfist, arranged and rearranged the location of food sources in different places, according to his inspiration and their taste, and they formed themselves into long, black, ropy patterns, extended like writing limbs, hands, fingers, across the sand in crescents, crisscrosses, and long ellipses, from one station to another. 4. Thus deployed, they were watched with intensity by the crowds of winter-carapaced people who lined up in neat rows to gaze down at them. 5. The ants were, together with the New Yorkers, an abstraction, a live mobile, an action painting, a piece of fond art, a happening, a parody, depending on the light. Example Analysis Diction The passage begins with a witty play on words, “one-colony show” as opposed to “one-man show”; but the rest of the passage uses very straight forward, no-nonsense diction to convey a scientific, impersonal tone. Thomas assumes his audience will be familiar with the words he chooses.

• Thomas uses biological and other somewhat technical terms: “crescents, crisscrosses, and long ellipses” (3); “winter-carapaced” (4) [carapace = a turtle’s shell or the hard exoskeleton of insects].

• He also uses the language of the art world, especially in the last sentence: “abstraction, a live mobile, an action painting, a piece of found art, a happening [a 60’s hippie term]”

Syntax

• Sentences 1, 2, 4, and 5 are cumulative (loose), with the effect that factual information is presented up front in a straightforward manner, with extra information appearing at the end of the sentence.

• The one compound sentence (3) unites the ants with the humans: the first independent clause concerns Alan Sonist, and the second independent clause concerns the ants and their patterns.

• The last sentence contains a prepositional phrase linking the ants with the humans. • The use of passive voice in sentence 4 places the focus on the ants, not the humans, even

though the sentence is about how the “winter-carapaced” humans watched the ants. • Thomas uses abundant prepositional phrases to add detail. • He subordinates ideas using participial phrases. For instance, every time a participle

appears, a new sentence could be written using that participle as a verb. Thomas’s use of such sub-ordination provides an economical means of combining ideas.

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Figurative Language All the figures of speech seem to have one purpose: to connect the ants to the humans and the humans to the ants.

• The ants are personified as ‘army’ ants (1) • Simile – The ants’ patterns extend “like writhing limbs, hands, fingers” (3) • Metaphor – The crowds of people are bundled up against the cold, “winter-carapaced”

(4) • All the metaphors in the last sentence portray the ants as objects of art:

“abstraction…mobile…painting…found art…happening…parody…” Imagery The images are visual, showing the orderly formations of the ants and the New Yorkers watching the ants.

• “long, black, ropy patterns” (the ants) • “extended like writhing limbs, hands, fingers, across the sand in crescents, crisscrosses,

and long ellipses” (the ants) • “winter-carapaced” (the New Yorkers) • “lined up in neat rows” (the New Yorkers)

Independent Practice Passage 3 From Pilgrim at Tinker Creek By Annie Dillard 1. Imagine a chilly night and a meadow; balls of dew droop from the curved blades of grass. 2. All right: the grass at the edge of the meadow begins to tremble and sway. 3. Here come the eels. 4. The largest are five feet long. 5. All are silver. 6. They stream into the meadow, sift between grasses and clover, veer from your path. 7. There are too many to count. 8. All you see is a silver slither, like twisted ropes of water falling roughly, a one-way milling and mingling over the meadow and slide to the creek. 9. Silver eels in the night; a barely-made-out seething as far as you can squint, a squirming, jostling torrent of silver eels in the grass. 10. If I saw that sight, would I live? 11. If I stumbled across it, would I ever set foot from my door again? 12. Or would I be seized to join that compelling rush, would I cease eating, and pale, and abandon all to start walking?

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Name: Date: Period:

Diction The Best Word for the Job

The denotative meaning of a word is the dictionary definition of a word. Many words have more than one denotative meaning. 1. Give two denotative meanings of the word “sharp” and use each in a sentence.

Words also have connotative meanings. The connotation of a word refers to the feeling and associations created by the word. Words can have positive, negative, or neutral connotations. Example: Positive: slender Neutral: thin Negative: skinny

2. Fill in words below that have the same denotative meaning as the word “old” but that can be

identified as: Positive: Neutral: Negative:

3. Look at the following words, all of which have the denotative meaning “house”: home hut shack mansion cabin chalet abode dwelling shanty domicile residence Decide if each word has a positive, negative, or neutral connotation and fill in the chart below. Be prepared to defend your answer.

POSITIVE NEUTRAL NEGATIVE

4. Make a list of words that have the same denotative meaning as the word “happy.”

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5. Place the words listed in number 4 in an order that illustrates degrees of happiness from the least to the most happy.

An idiom is a word or phrase peculiar to particular language and different from the denotative meaning of the words. Example: “Burning the midnight oil” means staying up late at night. “To carry out” may mean to make sure something is done. i.e., The spy “carried out” his mission.

6. Match the idiom with the word that best defines it. Some words may be used more than once.

a. move d. angry b. sad e. friendly c. satisfy f. evade _____ flew off the handle _____ hop to it _____ down in the mouth _____ give them the run-around _____ big-hearted _____ pass muster

Writing Activities 1. Choose a word from the dictionary that has at least four different meanings.

Write a paragraph in which you use the word four times, each time with a different meaning.

2. Consider the following group of words. skinny scrawny slender lithe slim emaciated gaunt willowy After looking up the dictionary definition of each word, write two paragraphs, one using the words with positive connotations to describe an attractive woman, and one using the words with negative connotations to describe an unattractive one. Include details that will “flesh out” your description.

3. Write a comical poem about a person from another country who encounters American idioms.

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Name: Date: Period:

Diction Practice

Read the following passage from Ray Bradbury’s short story “I See You Never.” Circle the specific words that you believe contribute to the drowsy, nostalgic tone of the passage. As you list the words on the lines below, group them into two or three categories (you assign the categories).

Now write a sentence explaining how the method (deliberate diction) impacts the meaning or tone of the passage.

Now we are going to play with diction a little bit. Choose a partner and then before you turn this page

over, each partner should choose a TONE (it can be any tone you would like). On the lines below, write

your name and tone adjective and your partner’s name and tone adjective.

Your Name and Tone Adjective Your Partner’s Name and Tone Adjective

She remembered a visit she had once made to some Mexican border towns – the hot days, the endless crickets leaping and falling and lying dead and brittle like small cigars in the shopwindows, and the canals taking river water out to the farms, the dirt roads, the scorched seascape. She remembered the silent towns, the warm beer, the hot, thick food each day. She remembered the slow, dragging horses and the parched jackrabbits on the road. She remembered the iron mountains and the dusty valleys and the ocean that spread hundreds of miles with no sound but waves --- no cars, no buildings, no nothing.

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Now you are going to rewrite the passage aiming to achieve your tone, by changing the diction of the passage in Mad Lib fashion. Your partner will ask you to give him/her words in the specific parts of speech listed below (without you looking at the sheet), and you will respond with words that you think will convey your chosen tone. Then you will trade roles. When we are all finished, we will read the Mad Libs as a class and try to guess the intended tone. They may not make complete sense, but we should be able to guess at the tone fairly accurately. 1. Adjective

2. Plural Noun

3. Adjective

4. Noun

5. Adjective

6. Adjective

7. Noun

8. Adjective

9. Verb + ing

10. Plural Noun

11. Adjective

12. Plural Noun

13. Adjective

14. Plural Noun

15. Adjective

16. Plural Noun

17. Adjective

18. Plural Noun

19. Verb – past tense

20. Noun

21. Plural Noun

22. Plural Noun

23. Noun

She remembered the (1-adj) (2-plural noun), the

(3-adj) (4-noun), the (5-adj) (6-adj)

(7-noun) each day. She remembered the (8-adj)

(9-verb+ing) (10-plural noun) and the

(11-adj) (12-plural noun) on the road.

She remembered the (13-adj) (14-plural noun) and the

(15-adj) (16-plural noun) and the (17-adj)

(18-plural noun) that (19-verb past tense)

hundreds of miles with no (20-noun)---no (21-

plural noun), no (22-plural noun), no (23-noun).

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Name: Date: Period:

Syntax Practice

Read the following passage from Ray Bradbury’s short story “I See You Never.” Identify the following syntactical patterns by highlighting and labeling:

Telegraphic (shorter than five words in length) Short (5-10 words in length) Medium (11-18 words in length) Long (more than 30 words in length) Asyndetic Polysyndetic Anaphoric

Now explain how the syntactical methods Bradbury chose affect the meaning and tone of the passage by choosing two of the patterns you noted above.

Pattern #1 Effect on meaning and tone

Pattern #2 Effect on meaning and tone

She remembered a visit she had once made to some Mexican border towns – the hot days, the endless crickets leaping and falling and lying dead and brittle like small cigars in the shopwindows, and the canals taking river water out to the farms, the dirt roads, the scorched seascape. She remembered the silent towns, the warm beer, the hot, thick food each day. She remembered the slow, dragging horses and the parched jackrabbits on the road. She remembered the iron mountains and the dusty valleys and the ocean that spread hundreds of miles with no sound but waves --- no cars, no buildings, no nothing.

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Now rewrite the passage by using only short, choppy syntax.

How does this new syntactical method change the meaning and tone of the passage?

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Name: Date: Period:

Imagery Practice

Read the following passage from Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, and circle or highlight the sensory images.

Although the narrator “looks into the distance,” the images are primarily auditory. List the auditory images in the order they occur in the excerpt.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Look at the progression of the images. How do the connotations associated with the images change as the reader moves through the passage?

From 1-2

From 2-3

From 3-4

She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to a sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officers clanged as she walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.

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As the images shift, how does this impact the meaning or the feeling of the excerpt?

The last image of the excerpt contains an olfactory image. What effect does this have on the passage?

Even though you are not familiar with the plot of the story, by analyzing the images, you can infer some of what the author intended the reader to experience. Write a sentence explaining how the images and their arrangement impact the meaning of the passage.

Now it is time for you to create the feeling of an experience through the use of images. Describe a six-year-old’s birthday party using four of the same sensory images (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) and end the passage with an image from a different sense. For example, your first four images could be smell-oriented and your last image could be about the sense of sight.

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Handy Dandy Reference Guide for

Style Analysis

I. Diction (choice of words)

1. monosyllabic/polysyllabic

2. colloquial

3. formal

4. old-fashioned

5. denotative/connotative

6. concrete/abstract

7. euphony/cacophony

II. Syntax (sentence structure)

1. sentence length

2. sentence pattern

a. declarative/interrogative/imperative/exclamatory

b. simple/compound/complex/compound-complex

c. loose

d. periodic

e. natural/rational order

f. inverted order

g. split order

h. juxtaposition/antithesis

i. parallel structure

j. repetition

k. rhetorical question

3. sentence beginnings

4. repetition/omission

a. asyndeton

b. polysyndeton

c. anaphora

d. epistrophe

e. anadiplosis

f. chiasmus

g. zeugma

5. arrangement of ideas in a sentence

6. arrangement of ideas in a paragraph

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III. Treatment of Subject Matter

1. subjectivity

2. objectivity

3. support of main ideas

a. opinion

b. experience

c. observation

d. reading

e. expert witness

f. statistical data

IV. Figurative Language

1. alliteration

2. assonance

3. consonance

4. simile/metaphor

5. personification

6. onomatopoeia

7. hyperbole

8. litotes

9. paradox

10. oxymoron

11. pun

12. irony

13. sarcasm

14. antithesis

15. apostrophe

16. allusion

17. synecdoche

18. metonymy

19. symbols

V. Appeals

1. Ethos

2. Pathos

3. Logos

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LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL April 16, 1963

*AUTHOR'S NOTE: This response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama (Bishop C. C. J. Carpenter, Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Rabbi Hilton L. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. Harmon, the Reverend George M. Murray. the Reverend Edward V. Ramage and the Reverend Earl Stallings) was composed under somewhat constricting circumstance. Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly Negro trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me. Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author's prerogative of polishing it for publication.

MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:

[1] While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

[2] I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here.

[3] But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

[4] Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

[5] You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

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[6] In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.

[7] Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants --- for example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.

[8] As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves : "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" We decided to schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.

[9] Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoralty election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run-off we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run-off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct-action program could be delayed no longer.

[10] You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

[11] The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

[12] One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken .in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of

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Albert Boutwell as mayor. will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

[13] We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

[14] We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

[15] You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may want to ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all"

[16] Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the

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segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful. Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression 'of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

[17] Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

[18] Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

[19] Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

[20] I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

[21] Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

[22] We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws.

[23] I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute

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misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

[24] I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

[25] In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

[26] I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

[27] You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

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[28] I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle.

[29] If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

[30] Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides--and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.

[31] But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

[32] I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some---such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle---have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as "dirty nigger lovers." Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

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[33] Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non segregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.

[34] But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of Rio shall lengthen.

[35] When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leader era; an too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

[36] In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

[37] I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious. irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, on Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

[38] I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious-education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"

[39] Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

[40] There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators"' But

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the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.

[41] Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.

[42] But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

[43] Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom, They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jai with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

[44] I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, ham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation-and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

[45] Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.

[46] It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handing the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use

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immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

[47] I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. There will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. There will be the old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." There will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

[48] Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?

[49] If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

[50] I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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TONE

Tone is defined as the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject and the audience. Very young children can sense a speaker’s attitude in tone of voice. For that matter, even a dog understands the tone of his master’s voice: “You are a very lazy old cur, how are you today? Did anyone ever tell you that you are absolutely useless. Wish I could be as worthless as you are.” The dog wags his tail, enjoying the attention and kindness of his master’s voice despite the literal meaning of the words.

To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning. If a student misses irony or sarcasm, he may find something serious in veiled humor.

But understanding tone in prose and poetry is an entirely different matter. The reader does not have voice inflection to obscure or to carry meaning. Thus, a student’s appreciation (knowledge) of word choice, details, imagery, and language all contribute to the understanding of tone. To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning. If a student misses irony or sarcasm, he may find something serious in veiled humor.

When learning to analyze tone, students should practice with passages appropriate for their grade level. In order to improve in

understanding and evaluating tone, students need to continually challenge themselves to read more complex literature.

To introduce tone, the teacher might speak the same phrase in several different tones of voice. The phrase “I love you” or “I see you” might be said affectionately, questioningly, sarcastically, glibly, or coldly. A brief scene with a simple dialogue between two students using differing tones to fit different characters and contexts emphasizes how tone changes meaning. For example:

A: You’re late! B: I know. I couldn’t help it.

A: I understand. B: I knew you would.

A: I have something for you. B: Really? What?

A: This!

• How might this scene be played by two lovers who are meeting at a restaurant where one lover is about to propose marriage?

• How would two spies speak the same words?

• How would a parent and a child who has come home late do so? In each scenario, the tone controls audience understanding and interpretation.

• What about student and teacher?

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A list of tone words is one practical method of providing a basic “tone vocabulary.” An enriched vocabulary enables students to use more specific and subtle descriptions of an attitude they discover in a text. Include words such as the following:

angry sad sentimental sharp cold fanciful upset urgent complimentary silly joking condescending boring poignant sympathetic afraid detached contemptuous happy confused apologetic hollow childish humorous joyful peaceful horrific allusive mocking sarcastic sweet objective nostalgic vexed vibrant zealous tired frivolous irreverent bitter audacious benevolent dreamy shocking seductive restrained somber candid proud giddy pitiful dramatic provocative didactic

Students should be encouraged to use dictionaries for definitions of tone words listed above. Students need explicit dictionary meanings to establish subtle differences between tone words such as emotional, sentimental, and lugubrious so that they can accurately comment on a work that appeals to emotions, emphasizes emotion over reason, or becomes emotional to the point of being laughable. Keeping a list of precise tone words, and adding to it, sharpens students’ articulation in stating tone.

Using the acronym DIDLS helps students remember the basic elements of tone that they should consider when evaluating prose or poetry. Diction, images, details, language, and sentence structure all help to create the author’s attitude toward the subject and audience.

DIDLS

Diction the connotation of the word

choice. Images vivid appeals to

understanding through the senses.

Details facts that are included or

those omitted. Language the overall use of language,

such as formal, clinical, jargon.

Syntax how structure affects the reader’s attitude.

DICTION

Students need to be sensitized to word choices in their own writing and to those of others. Using a thesaurus, select an interesting word with a neutral denotation. Then list each synonym and discuss the attitude implied by the varying words. For example:

To laugh: to guffaw, to chuckle, to titter, to giggle, to cackle, to snicker, to roar

Self-confident: proud, conceited, egotistical, stuck-up, haughty, smug, complacent, arrogant, condescending

House: home, hut, shack, mansion, cabin, chalet, abode, dwelling, shanty, domicile, residence

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King: ruler, leader, tyrant, dictator, autocrat, rex

Old: mature, experienced, antique, relic, ancient, elderly, senior

Fat: obese, plump, corpulent, portly, roly-poly, stout, rotund, burly, full-figured

IMAGES

The use of vivid descriptions or figures of speech that appeal to sensory experiences helps to create the author’s tone. Evaluate the author’s or speaker’s tone conveyed in the following lines of poetry:

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun. (restrained) An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king. (somber, candid) He clasps the crag with crooked hands. (dramatic) If I should die, think only this of me. That there’s a corner of a foreign field that is forever England. (poignant, sentimental) If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot. (allusive, provocative) Love sets you going like a fat gold watch. (fanciful) Smiling, the boy fell dead. (shocking) You do me wrong to take me out of the grave Thou art a soul in bliss But I am bound upon a wheel of fire That mine own tears do scald like molten lead (horrific)

DETAILS

Details are most commonly the facts given by the author or speaker as support for the attitude or tone. The speaker’s perspective shapes what details are given.

Consider how, when writing an essay, you might choose some details and omit others to affect your audience. Equally true, a teacher reporting a child’s behavior to colleagues, the principal, or a parent is likely to refocus details to produce a different desire effect on the audience.

LANGUAGE

Like word choice, the language of a passage has control over tone. Consider language to be the entire body of words used in a text, not simply isolated bits of diction. For example, an invitation to a graduation might use formal language, whereas a biology text would use scientific and clinical language.

Different from tone, these words describe the force or quality of the diction, images, and details. These words qualify how the work is written, not the attitude or tone.

jargon pedantic poetic vulgar euphemistic moralistic scholarly pretentious slang insipid sensuous idiomatic informal ordinary formal precise exact cultured esoteric learned picturesque connotative symbolic homespun plain simple provincial literal figurative trite colloquial bombastic obscure artificial obtuse precise detached grotesque exact emotional concrete

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Consider the following examples. Identifying the kinds of language can help establish the tone of the piece.

• When I told dad I goofed that exam he blew his top. (slang)

• I had him on the ropes in the fourth and if one of those short rights of mine had connected he’d have gone down for the count. I was aiming for his glass jaw, but I couldn’t seem to reach. (jargon)

• A close examination and correlation of the most reliable current economic indexes justifies the conclusion that the next year will witness a continuation that the next year will witness a continuation of the present, upward market trend. (pedantic, turgid)

Now examine the following passages and list the author’s word choices that contribute to the qualities of the language.

Formal Language

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales. New York: A Signet Classic from the New American Library, 1960.

Ordinary Language

It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty two, my age. But I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York, too.) Me—who?

“Theme for English B.” From Collected Poems by Langston Hughes. Copyright 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes.

Informal Language

The warden said to me the other day (innocently, I thnk), “Say etheridge, why come the black boys don’t run off like the white boys do?” I lowered my jaw and scratched my head and said (innocently, I think), “We, suh, I ain’t for sure, but I reckon it’s cause we ain’t got no wheres to run to.”

Knight, Etheridge. “The Warden Said to Me.” The Made Thing: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern Poetry. Ed. Leon Stokesbury. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 1987.

SYNTAX

How a speaker or author constructs a sentence affects what the audience understands. The inverted order of an interrogative sentence cues the reader or listener to a question and creates a tension between speaker and listener. Similarly, short sentences are often emphatic, passionate, or flippant, whereas longer sentences suggest the writer’s thoughtful response.

*For more information about how syntax affects tone, see the “Syntax” guide later in this section.

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SHIFT IN TONE

As students grow more aware of tone, they will discover that good authors are rarely monotone, that is monotonous. A speaker’s attitude can shift on a topic and an author may have one attitude toward the audience and another attitude toward the subject. The following are clues to help students watch for shifts in tone:

• Key words (but, yet, nevertheless, however, although)

• Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons)

• Stanza and paragraph divisions

• Changes in line and stanza or in sentence length

• Sharp contrasts in diction

In the following poem, note how the speaker puzzles about the irony of killing men in war who might have been neighbors or friends. As the poem continues, however, the speaker grows more uncertain of his attitude. Watch how repetition and punctuation guide the reader to the speaker’s shifting tone.

A number of clues show the reader the infantryman’s changing attitude. Normally, the repetition of “because” would be an error, but here it indicates some hesitancy of tone. The speaker is uncertain of the reason for killing even though he has been given the standard reason to kill “the enemy.” Similarly, the word “although” in line 12 gets more emphasis at the end of the line and the stanza, suggesting that the speaker is trying to persuade himself. The dashes, indicating a pause, suggest a rethinking on the part of the speaker that his former attitude of certainty about who an enemy is has changed to doubt and ambivalence.

The Man He Killed Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet Right many a nipperkin!* But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place. I shot him dead because— Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough; although He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps, Off-hand-like—just as I— Was out of work—had sold his traps— No other reason why. Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You’d treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown *Half-pint cup Hardy, Thomas. “The Man He Killed.” The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. Ed. James Gibson. New York: McMillan Publishing, 1978.

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SHORT PASSAGES FOR DISCUSSION

Begin practicing the analysis of tone by using short passages that use a specific device such as Diction, Images, Details, Language, or Syntax to convey tone.

1. From “Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. What is the tone? How does Poe create that tone? Consider Diction and Images.

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher…I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling…[with] vacant and eye-like windows.

2. From “Life in Caves” by Frank Folsom. What is the tone? How does Folsom create that tone? Consider Diction.

Perhaps because bats are nocturnal in habit, a wealth of thoroughly unreliable legend has grown up about them, and men have made of the harmless, even beneficial little beasts a means of expressing their unreasoned fears. Bats were the standard paraphernalia for witches; the female half of humanity stood in terror that bats would become entangled in their hair. Phrases crept into the language expressing man’s revulsion or ignorance—“Bats in the Belfry,” “Batty,” “Blind as a Bat.”

3. “Today is Very Boring” by Jack Prelutsky.

Today is Very Boring

Today is very boring it’s a very boring day, there is nothing much to look at, there is nothing much to say, there’s a peacock on my sneakers there’s a penguin on my head, there’s a dormouse on my doorstep, I am going back to bed. Today is very boring it is boring through and through, there is absolutely nothing that I think I want to do, I see giants riding rhinos, and an ogre with a sword, there’s a dragon blowing smoke rings, I am positively bored. Today is very boring, I can hardly help but yawn, there’s a flying saucer landing in the middle of my lawn, a volcano just erupted less than half a mile away, and I think I felt an earthquake, it’s a very boring day.

4. From The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colors (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it).

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A: You’re Late. B: I know. A: I understand. B: I knew you would. A: I have something for you. B: What? A: This. Shut the door. (from Brendan Kinney’s Tone presentation)

Tone implies; attitude is inferred. Tone reflects the writers attitude. Tone expresses a writer’s emotional state (attitude) toward his subject, his audience, or himself. An analysis of tone will depend on a precise and accurate understanding of the author’s attitude toward:

1. the subject 2. the audience 3. himself

(To misunderstand tone is to misunderstand.)

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Connecting Diction (connotation and denotation) to Tone *Different words help express different tones. Consider the following words and plot them in order from “light” to “heavy”: Child: kid, offspring, progeny Friend: pal, buddy, chum, mate, brother, sister, comrade Jail: prison, slammer, can, cooler, correctional institution Angry: ticked off, furious, mad, fuming, wrathful Computer Expert: geek, hacker, techie, programmer Threatening: scary, spooky, uncanny, eerie

Consider the connotation of the above words. How do they rank compared to the “base” word? How do they rank compared to each other?

Light Heavy

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Discovering Tone All QuieT on The WesTern FronT

(Diction, Syntax, and Imagery)

1 “These are wonderfully care-free hours. Over 2 us is the blue sky. On the horizon float the bright 3 yellow, sunlit observation-balloons, and the 4 many white clouds of the anti-aircraft 5 shells. Often they rise in a sheaf as the follow 6 after an airman. We hear the muffled rumble of 7 the front as only very distant thunder, bumble- 8 bees droning by quite drown it. Around us 9 stretches the flowery meadow. The grasses sway 10 their tall spears; the white butterflies flutter 11 around and float on the soft warm wind of the 12 late summer. We read letters and newspapers 13 and smoke. We take off our caps and lay them 14 down beside us. The wind plays with our hair; it 15 plays with our words and thoughts. The three 16 boxes stand in the midst of the glowing, red field- 17 poppies” (Remarque, 9). 1. Circle the nouns. List them here:

Describe the quality of the nouns. Are they positive, negative, etc.? What kind of details do the nouns suggest?

2. Put a box around all of the adjectives in the passage. After looking at them as a group, what do you notice

about their connotations?

3. Underline the verbs in this passage. List them here:

Are the verbs mostly active or passive? Why might the author have made this choice?

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4. How many sentences begin with a prepositional phrase?

What are the prepositional phrases telling you about the “goings-on” in the passage?

5. How many sentences begin with a subject and a verb?

Why would Remarque decide to use these kinds of sentences?

6. Look at the length and pace of each sentence. Do you notice any kind of pattern? What could this syntax

help you decipher about the overall feel of the passage?

7. Are there any images in the passage? (Remember, imagery is the use of words to paint mental pictures – if you close your eyes, you can really see it.) Give line numbers and a short description of some imagery.

8. Using all of the above information combined, use your tone words handout to find six appropriate tone words and list them on the lines provided. Then re-read the passage and choose two of your tone words to make the most accurate, most precise adverb-adjective combination to describe the tone of the passage.

9. Based on the diction, imagery, and syntax noted above, the TONE that best describes the passage is:

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Putting It All Together: From Awareness of Mood to Analysis of Tone

The TONE of a passage is the author’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, character, or audience. An author creates TONE primarily through choice of diction, images, detail, figures of speech, and syntax.

The MOOD of a passage is the atmosphere or predominant emotion in a literary work. In other words, mood is the emotional response of the reader to the text.

Understanding Mood

One way to describe the mood of the passage from “By the Waters of Babylon” is that it creates a sense of foreboding for the reader.

*A sense of foreboding is a feeling or premonition that something bad or harmful is about to happen. Two synonyms of the word “foreboding” are premonition and dread.

How do we know that something bad or harmful is about to happen? What makes us feel this way? Remember that mood is the reader’s emotional reaction to a text, and that an author uses the resources of language to make the reader react this way.

All of the activities that follow are based on the excerpt from “By the Waters of Babylon.” Read the passage carefully and complete the activities that follow it.

All the same, when I came to the Place of the Gods, I was afraid, afraid. The current of the great river is very strong – it gripped my raft with its hands. That was magic, for the river itself is wide and calm. I could feel evil spirits about me, in the bright morning; I could feel their breath on my neck as I was swept down the stream. Never have I been so much alone – I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel’s heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more, and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird – alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods.

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1. A sense of foreboding is created through the combination of many feelings. Look at the graphic below. On the line are some feelings and emotions that might contribute to or be an aspect of a sense of foreboding. Thinking back to a time when you felt a premonition or a feeling of dread, fill in the rest of the lines with other words that might contribute to a sense of foreboding.

2. Carefully read the passage from “By the Waters of Babylon.” Fill in the chart with words and images that create a sense of foreboding for the reader.

DICTION IMAGERY afraid evil

Place of the Gods evil spirits

the unknown Sense of Foreboding

powerlessness

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Classifying Diction and Imagery That Contribute to Tone The same words and images also give us clues about the speaker’s attitude, or tone.

3. In this case the speaker also seems to have a sense of foreboding. Look back at the words on the spiral graphic and the words and images you listed on the chart. How many of these words describe how the speaker feels? Link as many of the words from the spiral graphic to the words and images in the chart that seem to express that feeling. Study the example and then finish filling in the chart below.

Word from Graphic Diction Imagery powerlessness _____________ _____________

strong swept gripped small naked alone

“it gripped my raft with its hands” “swept down the stream” “my knowledge, but it was a squirrel’s heap of winter nuts” “no strength in my knowledge”

Now fill in the blanks below to explain how some of the words and images help to illustrate the speaker’s tone. The first one is done for you.

a. The speaker’s feeling of powerlessness is illustrated through the use of the image “it gripped my raft with its hands.” The speaker feels unable to escape from the river and where it is taking him. He personifies the river making it seem powerful and in control while his is helpless.

b. The speaker’s feeling of ______________________ is illustrated through the use of the image “_________________________________________________________.” The speaker ________________________________________________________.

c. The speaker’s feeling of ______________________ is illustrated through the use of the image “_________________________________________________________.” The speaker ________________________________________________________.

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Details

4. Identify at least one detail from the paragraph.

5. How does this detail add to the overall sense of foreboding?

6. Fill in the chart below with the words and images from the passage that illustrate the physical nature of the day and the river.

DICTION IMAGERY

7. What is the effect of the contrast between the physical nature of the day and the reader and character’s sense of foreboding?

Identifying Figurative Language, Understanding Comparisons, and Discussing Effect Read the lines below. First, identify the figurative language. Then fill in the blanks to identify the comparisons and discuss the effect of the use of the device. Do not use the word “foreboding.” You may use words from the first graphic or synonyms where appropriate.

8. ________________________ “Never have I been so much alone – I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel’s heap of winter nuts.” Comparing the speakers ____________________ to ________________________________ ___________________ shows the speakers _______________________________________ because ___________________________________________________________________.

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9. __________________________ “alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods.” Identifying the ____________________ as a______________________________________ makes the river seem _________________________________________________________ because ___________________________________________________________________.

10. __________________________ “I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird—” Comparing the speaker to ______________________ illustrates his ____________________ ___________________________________ because ________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________.

11. __________________________ “The current of the great river is very strong – it gripped my raft with its hands.” By giving the river current ____________________________ to grip the raft, the river seems to be ________________________________________________. This adds to the speaker’s sense of foreboding because ___________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________.

Language

Language is the entire body of words used in a text, not simply isolated bits of diction. These words qualify how the work is written, not the attitude or tone. Like diction, the language of a passage has control over tone.

12. Circle all of the words below that could be used to describe the language of the passage.

Look up any words you are unsure of. plain literal detached colloquial pretentious ordinary learned figurative simple concrete symbolic cultured lyrical esoteric emotional

13. Select one of the words describing language that you circled and justify your answer.

14. In what way(s) does the language contribute to tone?

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Syntax

15. Underline the independent clause in the following sentence. “All the same, when I came to the Place of the Gods, I was afraid, afraid.”

16. Is this a periodic or cumulative (loose) sentence?

17. How does this sentence structure contribute to the tone?

18. What is the effect of the repetition of the word “afraid”?

19. Write the sentence that includes parallel structure.

20. How does the parallel structure contribute to the feeling of tone?

21. How does the use of dashes illustrate the speaker’s sense of foreboding?

22. Identify the appositive phrase in the paragraph.

23. What is being renamed?

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Method and Meaning Practicing Style Analysis

All Quiet on the Western Front

The following passages will help you practice style analysis. I have chosen passages with specific purpose. Though I have labeled each section “imagery,” “diction,” or “syntax,” you will find examples of all three in each passage. The more you practice style analysis, the more adept you will become. IMAGERY PASSAGES: Ch. 4, p. 69 Cautiously, the mouth applied to the valve, I breath. The gas still creeps over the ground

and sink into all the hollows. Like a big, soft jelly-fish it floats into our shell-hole and lolls there

obscenely. I nudge Kat, it is better to crawl out and lie on top than to stay where the gas collects

most. But we don’t get as far as that; a second bombardment begins. It is no longer as though

shells roared; it is the earth itself raging.

With a crash something black bears down on us. It lands close beside us; a coffin has

thrown up.

Ch. 6, p. 134 We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut

off, they stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell-hole; a lance-corporal crawls a mile

and a half on his hands dragging his smashed knee after him; another goes to the dressing station

and over his clasped hands bulge his intestines; we see men without mouths, without jaws, without

faces; we find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to

bleed to death. The sun goes down, night comes, the shells whine, life is at an end.

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DICTION PASSAGES:

Ch. 4, p. 61

Then it begins in earnest. We crawl away as well as we can in our haste. The next lands fair

amongst us. Two fellows cry out. Green rockets shoot up on the sky-line. Barrage. The mud flies

high, fragments whizz past. The crack of the guns is heard long after the roar of the explosions.

Ch. 7, p. 237

Burning houses stand out like torches against the night. Shells lumber across and crash

down. Munition columns tear along the street. On one side the supply dump has been ripped open.

In spite of all the flying gragments the drivers of the munition columns pour in like a swarm of bees

and pounce on the bread. We let them have their own way. If we said anything it would only mean

a good hiding for us. So we go differently about it. We explain that we are the guard and so know

our way about, we get hold of the tinned stuff and exchange it for things we are short of. What

does it matter anyhow – in a while it will all be blown to pieces. For ourselves we take some

chocolate from the depot and eat it in slabs. Kat says it is good for loose bowels.

SYNTAX PASSAGES:

Ch. 6, p. 133

How long has it been? Weeks – months – years? Only days. We see time pass in the

colourless faces of the dying, we cram food into us, we run, we throw, we shoot, we kill, we lie

about, we are feeble and spent, and nothing supports us but the knowledge that there are still

feebler, still more to spend, still more helpless ones there who, with staring eyes, look upon us as

gods that escape death many times.

Ch. 10, p. 134

Then I grab the plate with the great pile of cakes and squeeze myself behind the house door.

As hiss, a crash, and I gallop off with the plate clamped against my chest with both hands. I am

almost in, there is a rising screech, I bound, I run like a deer, sweep round the wall, fragments clatter

against the concrete, I tumble down the cellar steps, my elbows are skinned, but I have not lost a

single pancake, nor even upset the plate.

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Name: Date: Period:

Style Analysis Practice

Quote from All Quiet on the Western Front:

Diction Figurative Language Syntax

“Now you will soon be going home, Kemmerich,” says Kropp. “You would have had to wait at least three or four months for your leave otherwise.”

Kemmerich nods. I cannot bear to look at his hands, they are like wax. Under the nails is the dirt of the trenches, it shows through blue-black like poison. It strikes me that these nails will continue to grow like lean fantastic cellar-plants long after Kemmerich breathes no more. I see the picture before me. They twist themselves into corkscrews and grow and grow and with them the hair on the decaying skull, just like grass in a good soil, just like grass, how can it be possible--

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