Commonplace Book

Mary Chitwood
Dr. Malek
English 3076

Dr. Malek,
This assignment has been a wonderful exercise in learning the extent to which grammar is
rhetorical. I realize now that though I knew that English itself was rhetorical (across multiple genres)
I didnt know how to correctly express it with my vocabulary. It is a rich experience to know the
names of rhetorical devices. But more than that, this newfound repertoire has opened my eyes to the
power that words have, that tropes have, that schemes have, that motives have, that levels of style
have. With the vocabulary comes an ability to read everyday articles of writing and discern the
meaning behind the words (and the under riding ability that the meaning has to affect a reader in a
given way). In short, I find myself becoming a careful reader of prose.
For my commonplace book, I tried to choose passages from a variety of styles. I wanted a
diverse set of passages to analyze. In class, you gave us both fiction and nonfiction pieces to
scrutinize. The nonfiction pieces were the most pleasantly surprising (Im thinking of Obamas
speech at Howard). But, the fiction pieces (No Country for Old Men, especially) were also enlightening.
After reading Cormac McCarthys No Country, I decided to look at The Road, which was the first
book I had read that really worked in deviation. Generally speaking, I pulled from books that Ive
read through the years (in English classes and for fun) in hopes of finding how different genres use
rhetorical devices. My selections include poetry, creative nonfiction, academic nonfiction and fiction
(including work from a short story and two novels).
Multiple times I found myself wondering how I would find good passages to analyze for
this project. Somehow, the idea that most sentences are replete with some sort of rhetoric felt
doubtful to me. But, upon actually looking for passages to analyze, schemes and tropes and motives
began to jump off of the pages. The book Rachels Tears is a good example of this. At first, as I began
reading through it again, I was coming up blank. The words seemed bland. But the passage I ended
up analyzing stood out immediately to me. The anaphora seemed blatant (in my eyes) where it would

have been unnoticed before. And again, the first sentence I read in The Lady of the Lake was like
gold. The immense work that the sentence does in leaning forward toward the coming plot
captivated me. Before, I might have just thought that the sentence was long and detailed. Even
George Eliots Middlemarch surprised me. I just finished reading it for another class, and was
increasingly noting the amount of metaphors in the work. Above this I wasnt seeing much. Yet, in
the sentence that I chose, the grammar was doing much more than I had originally seen; it was
taking the plot and reiterating it in a single sentence.
I really appreciate your approach to the class writing with style and have become excited
by the idea of rhetorical grammar. I have a little book now in which I plan to continue writing
stylistically pleasing passages. I had never thought of doing that before, though I have come across
many sentences in the past that I marveled at, and now am sorry that I never took the time to write
them down. Your class is heightening my awareness that there is more than what is initially seen in
passages; writing those passages down now feels necessary in learning the intricacies of them (and, I
hope, in learning to be a better writer myself).

Thank you,
Mary Chitwood

Table of Contents
Alice in Wonderland..5
Rime of the Ancient Mariner.6
Middlemarch7
One Thousand Gifts.......8
The Moonstone.9
The Lady of the Lake...10
Rachels Tears11
The Road...12
A Good Man is Hard to Find...13
Pedagogy of the Oppressed..14

Youre entirely bonkers. But Ill tell you a secret. All the best people are. Lewis Carroll, Alice in
Wonderland

Analysis (motive focused on language): These short, pithy statementswhich, individually, sound like
aphorismpull the reader from point A to point B to point C in a unique way. Reading the first
sentence jolts the reader; the three small words make up a strong assertion that begs to be
expounded upon. The next sentence, nearly as short, also denies full explanation to the reader. The
third and final sentence lands the punch line: All the best people are. Though other grammatical
techniques could easily have been applied (semicolons, conjunctions, dashes) the periods stop the
idea from reaching the reader too fastthus becoming ineffective. Instead, the periods conjure
question marks in the readers minds: Why would she say hes bonkers? What is the secret? The
periods thread the idea together well because they make the reader pause between each thought,
peaking interest. The sentence completely loses its importance when it is strung together: Youre
entirely bonkers, but Ill tell you a secretall the best people are.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Analysis (schemes of parallelism and repetition): This piece of poem shows clear parallelism as well as
repetition. These schemes comply with the socially accepted view of poetry at the time. Yet, they
affect the reader as well. The wordingrepetitious and rhythmicmimics the feel of days going on
and on and on without change in scenery (as is true for the mariner). The echo of hollow days is
found in the echoing words. Even the use of commas [and sole semicolon] furthers this idea. The
sentence feels lethargic and tired because the commas feel like slow inhales of breath. The reader
reads the sentence thus: Day after day [breathe in], day after day [breathe out], / We stuck [breath
in], nor breath nor motion [breathe out].

It was beautiful to see how Dorotheas eyes turned with wifely anxiety and beseeching to Mr.
Casaubon: she would have lost some of her halo if she had been without that duteous
preoccupation; and yet at the next moment the husbands sandy absorption of such nectar was too
intolerable; and Wills longing to say damaging things about him was perhaps not the less tormenting
because he felt the strongest reasons for restraining it. George Eliot, Middlemarch

Analysis (motive focused on subject matter): In this passage, Eliot strings together three different ideas [or
three different people, rather] with semicolons. Though the reader does not fully know it at this
point in the story, this demonstrates the tightly interwoven relationship of the three individuals.
Even the stark difference in the content of the phrases within the one sentence (i.e. Dorotheas
wifely anxiety, Mr. Casaubons sandy absorption, and Wills longing to say damaging things)
shows that while the characters are so different, they are all part of one subplot. Indeed, Eliot creates
three vignettes within this sentence. The reader sees Dorothea looking with duteous
preoccupation at her husband, and then sees Mr. Casaubon attend his wife with that sandy
absorption of such nectar (sensory language juxtaposing the rough feel of sand against the smooth
sweetness of nectar), and then finally sees Will suppressing a biting reply.

When did I stop thinking life was dessert? I push back from the table. Push away from regrets.
They need something to drink. I clatter out the stainless steel glasses. Pour out the cold milk and
think of the strangers walking briskly, blithely along to Emmaus, oblivious to the God-skin before
their eyes. Only in the slowing, the sitting down at the table, when His hands held the bread and the
thanks fell from His tongue, do the open-eyed, the wide-eyed, see the Face they face (Luke 24:1335). The fast have spiritually slow hearts. Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Analysis (focused on metaphor): Here, Voskamp displays multiple uses of metaphor. When she calls life
dessert, she does not mean that food is equivalent to life; she means that life should be enjoyed
slowly, appreciably, like one enjoys dessert. She also relates her act of pushing away from the table to
her pushing away her reverie. And again, at the end, when she writes that The fast have spiritually
slow hearts, she means that people who do not stop to appreciate what God has given them are
not very spiritually aware (not that the hearts actually beat slowly). This last example is also an
example of aphorism. There is even a metaphor when Voskamp writes, thanks fell from His
tongue. Obviously, words cannot literally fall from a persons mouth, but the visual verb fall is a
poetic representation of speaking.

Here, for one moment, I find it necessary to call a halt. On summoning up my own recollections
and on getting Penelope to help me, by consulting her journalI find that we may pass pretty
rapidly over the interval between Mr. Franklin Blakes arrival and Miss Rachels birthday. Wilke
Collins, The Moonstone

Analysis (motive focused on writer): Collins uses his narrator to get to the good parts of the story.
Rather than spend time writing about mundane events that transpire between main plot events, the
narrator, Gabriel Betteredge, explains to the reader that because of his own recollections and the
consultation of Penelopes journal, some time needs to pass without recounted detail for the reader.
Collins maintains a colloquial style via first person pronouns, as well as dashes and commas, to show
Betteredges thought process, which makes the blatant revelation of time passage less jarring to the
reader. In short, it fits the style of the book and does not feel like author is telling the reader: I need
to find a way to pass time smoothly.

Henry Levin, an ambitious, handsome thirty, who walked the floors in Macys book department
wearing a white flower in his lapel, having recently come into a small inheritance, quit, and went
abroad seeking romance. Bernard Malamud, The Lady of the Lake

Analysis (First Sentence): This extraordinary first sentence has multiple components: it places the
reader into a scene, it describes the protagonist and it even gives the protagonists background. All
of this is accomplished by the subordinating style, which allows the sentence to integrate description
(ambitious, handsome thirty [] wearing a white flower in his lapel), background (come into a
small inheritance) and foreshadowing (seeking romance) into the main clause of the sentence:
Henry Levin [] quit. That the first sentence does all of this is especially appropriate because this
is the gateway to a short story. Time is sparse, and this sentence describes past, present and future in
one fell swoop, saving space.

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I miss you with all my heart. More than I can express. I miss your smile and laughter. I miss playing
the piano with you. I miss hearing your voice, especially when you were being dramatic. All I want is
to have you back with us again. Bethanee Scott, Rachels Tears

Analysis (Use of Anaphora): The repetition of the words I miss at the beginning of the sentences, a
usage of anaphora, is a rhetorical device that evokes pathos from the reader. It has the feel of
asyndetonthe list feels as if it could go on and on forever. There is no finalizing and to stop the
flow of the list. In fact, the periods feel like commas here. The sentences read as follows: I miss
you with all of my heartmore than I can expressI miss your smile and laughter, I miss playing
the piano with you, I miss hearing your voice. It is important to note that Bethanee Scott is not an
author, but the sister of a martyr. This is a response of the heart, and most likely not a conscious
usage of anaphora. This intensifies the effect of the anaphora, since the reader feels that the I miss
statements are each instances of cherished memories. And, because the sentence feels like
asyndeton, the reader understands that while only four memories are given, there is a lifetime of
memories too precious to mention.

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The boy didnt answer.

You have to talk to me.
Okay.
You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is
to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you
understand?
Yes.
He sat there cowled in a blanket. After a while he looked up. Are we still the good guys? he said.
Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Analysis (Example of Deviation): This passage radiates a haunting silence. The lack of usual punctuation
marks (i.e. quotation marks and apostrophe) feels foreign to the reader. This deviance has an
unusual closeness with the content of the book; it makes the reader feel immersed in the people-less
world in which the father and son traverse. Even the lack of tags enhances this. The reader has to
pay special attention to which person is speaking as well as when they begin to speak, making each
utterance a special comment to be noted and studied. It can be easily imagines that the father and
son feel this way also. They live in this quiet, dying world, and it feels as if the grammar, too, has
died. Who cares for grammatical correctness when survival is so unsavory? In some way, the quiet
words feel like scribbled notes in a post-apocalyptic journalpeople trying to find life but missing
the mark.

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Yesm, the man said, smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself to be known, but it
would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadnt of reckernized me. Flannery OConnor,
A Good Man is Hard to Find

Analysis (Focused on Footing): In this sentence, the reader is oriented closely to the Misfit [the man].
The phrase smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself is a zoomed image of the
Misfits face and mouth; the reader easily imagines the slow curve of a smile. Then, when he
mispronounces the word recognized and instead says reckernized, the reader is again directed
toward his mouth. OConnor could easily have described the mans southern accent without actually
misspelling words. Yet, this often seen deviation (colloquialism) does something that mere
description could not have done. It chills the reader that the lady is so near the murderer. The
readers focus on the mans mouth and feel uncomfortably close themselves.

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Who suffer oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of
liberation? They will not gain this liberty by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it. And
this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love
opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressors violence, lovelessness even when
clothed in false generosity. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Analysis (Focused on Metaphor): This passage is replete with metaphors. Freire writes that finding
freedom is a quest and that people have to fight for it. These wordsthat ring with the journey
of an epic poemhave a theme of war. Further, he writes that oppressors are clothed in false
generosity. Even the metaphor of clothing, in the midst of the context of war, has a biblical sense
of a wolf in sheeps clothing. Freires metaphors work well in establishing his theme of
oppression. That word itself is used four times in these three sentences and is present in the title
of the book. But, more than being expected, it works to move his audience (movere). His whole
book (or philosophy) is grounded in teaching and, if in teaching, then also in moving and changing.
His battle language encourages the reader to take action and fight against injustice.

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