Starting Again After a Brain Injury - Jane Rosett
It's hard to imagine having all of your experiences, memories, and thoughts being stolen from you. Jane Rosett experiences this after receiving a traumatic brain injury due to a car crash. Her use of literary technique, namely syntax, imagery, and diction, ties her piece together and effectively conveys her message of loss, hope, and renewal.
"I didn’t know what she was talking about. 'It’s Trident.' It was delicious." This quote from the beginning of the piece is a good example of how Rosett takes advantage of syntax. The sentences are simple, short, and fragmented. Her syntax compares favorably to her thought processes at the time. She was incapable of complex thought, her memories were broken and lacked continuity. This was excellent syntax for the start of the piece because it shows were she started, and as the syntax gains complexity and flow it clearly shows mental growth and increasing capability. This is important because the author is seeking to show her slow progression from a unsteady, broken existence to a more whole one.Diction in this piece is used in an attempt to explain to the reader what having a lifetime of memories erased is like. The Rosett makes use of words like "melting", "evaporation", and "vanished", which are all much stronger than words like "gone" and "lost". It gives you the feeling of something precious just slipping through your fingers, like fine white sand on the beach. However she also uses very strong words to describe her recovery. She needs to "forge neuronal pathways", rather than just "creating" or "making" them. It hints at the tremendous effort required to recover and helps us connect with the author better.
The use of this detail by Rosett in this piece is tremendous. She utilizes it to bring to light certain elements of herself that show the stark differences between her present and former self. "One woman whom I still don’t recognize told me I used to shred beets into my chocolate cake batter." This detail is great because it is a little whimsical, but in the next sentence Rosett states that she dosen't even remember liking to bake. It frames the harsh reality of her situation nicely and helps us to truly understand the impact of her loss upon her. But the lightness of the detail demonstrates an undercurrent of hope, she seems to have discovered new passions.
The Jane Rosett expertly utilizes syntax, imagery, and diction in an attempt to describe the impact of losing all of ones memory, and the tremendous emotion and effort it involves.
Doug, I found this article and your analysis of it to be very interesting! I am intrigued by the brain, so this was cool. Your intro was very catching and contained an appropriate amount of description about what your main ideas would be. I liked how the first paragraph started out, but with the second and third beginnings, I was not thrilled. By starting with the specific writing technique you are talking about, it seems like your focusing more about the assignment than the actual analysis, if that makes any sense. I struggle with the same thing, so it's understandable. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI really like the intro, it gives a great explanation of what your essay will be about. The first paragraph was great as well, I knew exactly what you meant when you talked about her mind in short fragments, and how that was the way she talked. You could add maybe one more example of syntax in there to give the reader more ideas. I agree with Nikki about the other two body paragraphs being less exciting, if you start the first paragraph with a quote, I would try to start the other ones in a similar way.
ReplyDeleteYou do a great job of describing how syntax, imagery, and diction come into play in this article. The quotes used are also very well chosen, but the transitions between the different techniques could flow a bit better, instead of just announcing each new one. Keep it up!
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