Figure of Speech by Lapham - Assignment Example

Details Figures of Speech Quotes and Paraphrases of the Flaubert quote. This Phrase was quoted from “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert published on 7th February 1857. Boorstin quote. This phrase was quoted from “The Image” by Daniel Boorstin published in May 1974 Franklin Paraphrases This from was quoted from the book “An American Life” by Benjamin Franklin published in 2003 MacLeish quote This phrase was quoted from “American Letter” by Archibald MacLeish published in 1933. Literary Reference and Figures of Speech FIGURES OF SPEECH 1. “Carry the observation around the next bend of the river or up into the next stand of The cottonwood trees” he uses this phrase to express the idea of further scrutinizing the observation that he had earlier made in details. This figure of speech means to take something, an idea or an observation to the next level. 2. Harnessing of it (the mind) to the bandwagon of social and political reforms. (he uses this phrase to tell us [the reader] that he focused his mind to the many stories that revolve around political and social reform). The figure of speech employed I this phrase is oxymoron in which he tries to put two words that seems to contradict each other. “the band wagon of social and political reforms” 3. The national college of Pundit (‘national college’ sounds generic and he also used the word “college” to refer to a low level of education. The figure of speech employed in this phrase is irony. How could pundit as he terms it be in a national college. 4. The inability to “draw on three thousand years is living hand to mouth”. ( he used this phrase to let the reader understand how difficult it was to link up multiple stories. The phrase ‘living from hand to mouth’ shows the difficulty). 5. “Catch a thought in the butterfly net of a metaphor” here as he did, he is trying to liken himself to a hapless hunting dog. He has to come up with an idea in the many activity that he associate with. The figure of speech used in this phrase is a metaphor to bring about the comparison. 6. “wine-dark sea of cyberspace” he uses the phrase wine-dark sea to show the value of the computers that had just crop up. The term ‘wine’ describes its value or importance. In this sentence he also uses a metaphor to draw comparison between the computers that had just cropped up and wine. 7. “Where all the stories end up in the key of C major”. (In this phrase he tend to tell us how most of the stories published in America are often taken with much seriousness or are often over hyped by the readers. This figure of speech is a metaphor in which he compares the intensity of the American stories with the tone of C major in music or in other words to mean over hyped. 8. “The notice didn’t come in the mail” (notice the satire that Lapham uses here. He used this phrase to depict how one’s expectation is usually thwarted. He uses this phrase which is satirical to ridicule those naively anticipated for change and never gets it. 9. “On the sorrows of Grub street the sun never sets”. (Points out how the problem that he describes never ends. The phrase ‘sun never sets’ has been used to mean that the problems never end. The figure of speech employed here is Rhetoric in because there is no place that the sun never sets. He uses this phrase to imply that Grab street never sleeps 10. “The wind tunnel of innovative delivery story”. He uses this phrase to show how it is difficult to come up with an innovative story. The term wind tunnel depicts a difficult scenario. The figure of speech employed here is symbolism in which the wind tunnel symbolizes the chaotic environment that they collected their stories from 11. He uses the phrase “no sign of a dog with a bird in its mouth” to mean that it was very difficult to achieve an intended goal in those street particularly to come up with a concrete story that one can include in his writing. In this phrase he also employs symbolism, whereby he symbolizes the dog to the real events that takes place in the American streets. 12. He use the phrase “I resist the call of standing ovation” to mean that he does not want to be applauded or congratulated. The writer employs double negativity 13. The phrase “an agony of Mammon, not a hymn to Apollo” has been use to compare the two individual, Mammon and Apollo. In which ones suffering (Mammon) could not be compared to the comfort of the other (Apollo). 14. The phrase “the strength of the words themselves no their product placement” is used to show us the writer Lapham was not only concerned about what the words in his essay meant but also the message that they carried. 15. The phrase ‘living hand to mouth’ is used to mean a difficult life. This figure of speech is an imagery in which employs word to create a mental picture in the readers mind. It is also a metaphor. LITERARY REFERENCES 1. Twain sketches This sketches are found in the book Sketches by Mark Twain published in 1875. 2. Thurber’s Fables. This Fables are found in the book Fables of our Time by James Thurber published in 1956 3. Gibbons notes This notes are found in the book Blue Jay Notes. Descriptive Summery of Figure of speech by Lapham Lapham begins by telling us that the Notebook Magazine had become so much focused with the new print method of letting their readers know about the current ways of the world which was intended to acquaint them with presupposition of its editor. “Notebook was deeply rooted in the soils of print” (Lapham 7). He uses this phrase to let us visualize how the Magazine was very much focused on their works of print. To meet the new requirement of the magazine, Lapham resolved to learn the skill of essay writing which was a type of literary address that he did not have much of practice but had fortunately encountered most of the authors. When he states that his understanding of speech was not restrictive to Flaubert’s Dictionary, Twain’s sketches, letters of Seneca or Gibbon’s notes and the others, he means that he had a broader perspectives of essay which was not just restricted to the method in which a particular author had done his work (Lapham 7). Lapham notes that one of his main source of reference was the Essay written by Michael de Montaigne who was a contemporary of Shakes spear and a French Autobiographer. Lapham assert that what distinguishes essay from other forms of writing such as article, campaign speech and tract, is that essay tend to focus mostly on what the writer knows. “Asking himself at the outset of his reflection, what do I know? (Lapham 7)”. He states that writers who are determined to make huge achievement often begin their essay knowing when, how, where and why they intend to make the writing. He uses the phrase harnessing of it (the mind) to the bandwagon of social and political reforms. (He uses this phrase to tell us [the reader] focused his mind to the many stories that revolve around political and social reform). He says that essayist must at least have the knowledge of what they are writing about even if their work involves a report or history. Lapham states that the essayist is never sure of the next sentence until the word shows up on the page and he likens this with Twains Huckleberry Finn in which the Essayist light out for the territories. “Like Twain Huckleberry Finn, the essayist lights out for the territories” (Lapham 8). He observes that essay was the best option for communicating with the American readers who are always in a hurry for one thing or the other. Lapham uses the phrase “Carry the observation around the next bend of the river or up into the next stand of the cottonwood trees” to express the idea of further scrutinizing the observation that he had earlier made in details (Lapham 8). He admits that he was never good at essay writing and that he often found it difficult to accept this fact. For instant he says that when the Notebook magazine called for a special personnel to cover a particular story such as the war in Israel, scandal in Washington and money in Holiday, he often did not have any background knowledge or side information of the various topics. Lapham emulates the method of Montaigne who assumed ignorance in his work of essay to display what would be referred to as a carrier ending level of transparency. For instance, he quotes one of Montaigne piece of work which states that if anyone had to catch him in ignorance, he will definitely not be answerable to any of the accusation since he did not have enough information and just presented the facts the way they are (Lapham 8). He use the Phrase “perhaps could have had the knowledge in the past when I attempted to light on passages that explained thing” to let us know that in the past he used to dig dipper in stories to find out the whole truth (Lapham 8). Lapham says that he approached art of writing with the hope that he might learn something however long it took to learn it. He says that he was determined to continue with writing until the moment that he would try set up his own thought in a sentence or as he put it “catch it in a butterfly net of a metaphor” (Lapham 9) Lapham points out that in order to come up with an excellent piece of writing, as he learnt from some famous authors, the writer has to value the weight of his words .and to delight in their cadence and meter. He finalized by stating that “I know no other way out of what is both maze of the eternal present and the prison the self except with a string of words” to imply that he cannot vividly relate the two (Lapham 9) Work Cited Lapham, H. 2010. “Figures of speech”. Notebook. 45. 7-9 Read More