In Love and War
by Janine di Giovanni
Di Giovianni's "In Love and War" tells about the rough time that her and husband endured while dealing with his alcoholism. As warside reporters, the pair of them faced and witnessed horrible sights and actions that left both scarred and heavily affected their life afterwards. This essay documents their post war journalism period, when the couple moved to paris, to have some peace though it was anything but. The author accurately portrays her and her husbands's raw emotion, passion, detachment, and troubled persona through well chosen rhetoric. Such as her diction, syntax, and imagery that affectedly depicts her situation to her reader.
Throughout the essay her simple, informal, yet precise word choice gets straight to the point and gives off an almost gritty emotion. One that is genuine and obviously not meant to please. The vulgarity of her words further add to this raw emotion that is obviously emitted from her husband. The diction paints an image of him as being very tough but very sensitive at the same time, because of the terrifying and cruel aspects of war that he has been devastatingly affected by. War in itself is to the point, vulgar and takes all and any kind of casualty not caring who in the end it hurts to get to the means, which is exactly what her language conveys. An example of this is seen in the excerpt "this stuff really f****d us up for good?" her word choice here is simple, vulgar, and extremely to the point (Di Giovanni). Adding to effect of her diction the author, Laura di Giovianni, uses syntax as well to further emphasize the mental state of both her, the family of the addict, and her husband, the addict himself. Her short punchy sentences have almost the same affect of portraying the attitude of war, the one that has so royally messed up her husband and her. The frequent use of lists like" the graves, the fires, the bombs." create a war like rhythm that seemingly has no end. One that is creepy, depressing, and gloomy.
The use of imagery in the piece shows the detachment of both the author and the wife. He, who becomes detached from the world after getting sober and she, who becomes detached from him. Through imagery we can see not only aspects of the what affected him like in the line " fever rising, his head damp, and his limbs splayed, but also how it did. When she describes her husband during rehab, " his face was white, hollow, and thin," you can't help but envision death. Which I believe is exactly what the author is insinuating, that part of her husband died, a part that she will never get back.
All in all the author's rhetoric leaves us with a gloomy, filled with despair account of their lives. Her use of simple yet vulgar words, disturbing imagery, and short rhytmic sentences brilliantly depict a husband who is detached from the world, and a wife who must readjust. Laura Di Giovianni's narrative does, I'm sure, intended it to do.
This is by far your best entry! Even if the audience had not read the article, you clearly portray and explain the feel that the author was trying to get across. Awesome job! I just have some quick suggestions. First, be careful when using diction. Diction is specific words. At one point you give an example that states, "this stuff really f****d us up for good?" I believe this is a phrase and can only be used as diction if you pick specific words out of it. Secondly, it is super helpful if you give examples for each point you make. For example, it would help to see a direct quote from the text explaining the author's use of short, punchy sentences. More examples and explanations are always helpful. Other than that, I really enjoyed this entry!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post. I actually read the article through the URL on the top and I think you have a good idea of how the author gets across the meaning. Again as I posted in your first Open Prompt, I would include more evidence to support the overall meaning of the ideas you are trying to make. Like Sarah mentioned above, you can improve this post by including various quotes from the actual article as evidence, just like you did on the third paragraph. Your evidence for the use of imagery was good and I like how you tied that with your own personal thoughts. I’d love to see more of this in the future, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. I think you did a phenomenal job identifying Di Giovanni's techniques with diction imagery and syntax. You have a specific examples that convey your points precisely. If you can find more similar quotes and examples, it would improve an already good post. The only other issue i noted was that it seems that you may have kind of combined diction and syntax into one thing with your first example. Overall i would say this is your best post and it's pretty good in my opinion.
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