- "What I didn't say was that each time I picked up a German dictionary or a German book, the very sight of those dense, black, barbed-wire letters made my mind shut like a clam." (33)
- "The clean bed bobbed before me like a safe boat." (82)
- "I thought the nurse must be joking, and that if I knocked on the door next to mine I would hear no answer, but go in and find Miss Norris, buttoned into her purple, squirrel-collared coat and lying on the bed, her mouth blooming out of the quiet vase of her body like a bud of a rose." (194)
Personification
- "The fountain spurted a few inches into the air from a rough length of pipe, threw up its hands, collapsed and drowned its ragged dribble in a stone basin of yellowing water." (89)
- "I heard the whisper of her clothes as she undressed." (122)
- "A second wave collapsed over my feet, lipped with white froth, and the chill gripped my ankles with a mortal ache." (153)
Onomatopoeia
- "There was a terrible shriek of brakes followed by a dull thump-thump." (9)
- "I heard a hollow boomp boomp in my right ear that grew fainter and fainter." (46)
- "Whee-ee-ee-ee-ee, it shrilled, through an air crackling with blue light, and with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant." (143)
Cliché
- "Usually I had these plans on the tip of my tongue." (32)
- "From the first night Buddy Willard kissed me and said I must go out with a lot of boys, he made me feel I was much more sexy and experienced than he was and that everything he did like hugging and kissing and petting was simply what I made him feel like doing out of the blue, he couldn't help it and didn't know how it came about." (71)
- "The woman finished her article by saying better be safe than sorry and besides, there was no sure way of not getting stuck with a baby and then you'd really be in a pickle." (81)
Hyperbole
- "I hadn't had time to eat any breakfast at the hotel cafeteria that morning, except for a cup of overstewed coffee so bitter it made my nose curl, and I was starving." (24)
Anaphora
- "The walls were beige, and the carpets were beige, and the upholstered chairs and sofas were beige." (127)
Sylvia Plath does not outrightly focus her story on the prevalence of each rhetorical device, however she does include a multitude of rhetorical strategies. She most frequently includes similes and onomatopoeia, which aid in the development of the overall imagery of the story. Her oddly clever variation of comparisons portray the raw truths to Plath's story. Although I did not specifically cite any instances of allusions, Plath does include few Biblical references, such as when Esther is beginning to write her novel. The rhetor's general style truly and effectively reveals her deepest emotions to the reader.
Your insight helped me recognize rhetorical strategies that I had not picked up on before, such as cliche and onomatopoeia. I agree that the author did not seem to rely on rhetorical strategies throughout the novel as a basis for the book. They merely enhanced the already interesting story. I also noticed that simile and anaphora were used at several times in the novel. I appreciate that you were able to identify several different strategies, as well as find multiple examples for each.
ReplyDeleteThe multitude of rhetorical strategies which you identified throughout the novel is impressive. I found that the examples of onomatopoeia you chose to include effectively aided in the development of a somewhat suspenseful mood. The personification that Plath employs serves to illustrate the sense of helplessness which overtakes Esther in that she feels as if her existence is being controlled by someone other than herself. However, I can identify an error in your identification of anaphora in that this specific example is classified as epistrophe due to its repetition of the word "beige" at the end of the successive phrases, rather than at the beginning.
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