3/20/11
“Kate Chopin's The Awakening is Making Me Reevaluate my Casual Three-Month Relationship” by Emily Axford
In this reflective essay, Emily Axford writes sarcastically about how Kate Chopin's The Awakening alerted her to the self empowerment she as a woman deserved. Mostly, it is the overstatements and hyperbole's she makes that makes it obvious she is writing in a sarcastic tone. For example, she writes that she was blind to the “suppression” and was actually a “slave” to her boyfriend. This exaggeration is highlighted by the reasons she lists out to why she is suppressed. For example, she feels pressured into accepting a Facebook invite to her boyfriend's event, and worries she might “cause a scandal” is she denies it. Axford use of emphatic statements also reveals her sarcasm. “How could I have been so blind? It was all there!” She also uses syntax as a device. Her lengthy, overly descriptive sentences make the content seem melodramatic. She uses contradictions to make it clear she is not being serious. For example, she writes her boyfriend's emo band has “chauvinist mantras like 'Could My Pillow Be Any Wetter With My Tears (Since My Girlfriend Left Me),' 'Feelings, Feelings: Lots of Feelings,' and of course, 'Let Me Cook Dinner For You Sometime, Because I Respect You.'” Axford's imagery is very colorful. “Well, color my cheeks pink with the flush of forbidden thought.” She also makes allusions to Greek goddesses like Hera and Artemis. The tone that Axford has developed is very playful and humorous. Unfortunately, it would not work for an AP essay because it is completely sarcastic and informal.
No comments:
Post a Comment