We chose these sentences because they might (hopefully) get students wanting to read and wanting to read closely.
AnalysisThe short sentence juxtaposed against the longer sentence highlights the difference between the version of him that other see and the way it makes her feel. The emotional "batter" that is "hard" emphasizes that his behavior doesn't set well with her, doesn't blend with the version of her father that she prefers to hold. Since the lumps are "baking beneath the surface", it is clear that she cannot express these feelings of hardness, that the emotions are buried, visible, affecting her in her development, but not visible to just anyone.
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AnalysisThis is an amazing sentence for characterization. The near-empty wallet indicates that the narrator is not abundantly wealthy- otherwise, why mention it. But, the money that he does have is valued, which is why he didn't just leave the money at home, despite the wallet being uncomfortable. Also, the pew-of-steel is an allusion to Superman, the man-of-steel, which shows us the protagonist is most likely young, which is reinforced by the "infinity sermon" as a jab to the length of time the sermon takes up. The understatement that his pain is "not in short supply" emphases that he IS in pain, but in a much more dramatic fashion, again highlighting his age and introducing the reader to his witty sense of humor.
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AnalysisThis sentence is a great one to look at for repetition and simile. The back to back repetition of "wait" with the emphasis on the second one indicated that the narrator is receiving too much information too fast. She is rushing her own thoughts trying to interrupt the flow of incoming information. Then we find out how this information affects her. This information isn't coming at her like sprinkles falling on a bed of vanilla ice cream. No, it is bullets...from a machine gun. It is an aggressive simile highlighting the distressing nature of what she is hearing and the possible life-altering consequences of the information.
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AnalysisThese two sentences truly pack a powerful punch. The unnamed Auntie is familiar, Auntie is a term of endearment- her actual name isn't even necessary. But, Auntie is beyond angry. She "glowers" which is beyond a stare, beyond a glare. The "glower" is enhanced by her shifting energy that is "imploding". The use of imploding is interesting because she isn't EXPLODING. This isn't an outward-facing anger. This is an internal anger, one that she is keeping close to her. Since the anger both magnifies and focuses, it is as if the entire world, the world beyond this angry woman, disappears. The narrator doesn't have to tell us she is scared. We can see her fear clearly because she says her hair on her neck "stands on end". She senses the danger in this moment, but not a danger to herself- this isn't an explosion. She fears what this anger might mean, what this implosion might mean for her.
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AnalysisStarting this sentence off with alliteration emphasizes the silence. This is the snow of silence. The heavy, weighted kind. This silence isn't light. It isn't calming. It isn't pleasant. It is heavy. It is oppressive. It is "smothering". This "smothering" is contagious, but it doesn't just spread to everything else, it "bleeds". This personification implies that the smothering nature of the silence is a choice that silence made, that silence decided to smother, to bleed. The silence is further vilified by saying that the silence "mocks, prods, and stares you down", as if the silence is an inescapable bully. The silence is ruinous, causing those around it to wither away into a corpse-like state. This silence isn't just smothering, it is deadly.
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AnalysisTime has been anthropomorphized in this excerpt as an entity that races or crawls or stops, when in actuality, what is actually changing, as Paulsen points out, is the human perception of time. This sentence offers an explanation for how he can remember so much from his own childhood in this memoir without actually coming out and saying that he remembers everything. Paulsen acknowledges that he realizes time doesn't change, but because it slowed down for him in childhood, he is able to capture those moments from so long ago in his memoir.
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AnalysisThe repetition in this sentence is dazzling. By repeating the word "harsh" at the beginning and the end of this sentence emphasizes the tone of this scene, which is, clearly, unnatural since Flynn takes special care to say that this light is "like nothing found in nature". Since humans are creature of nature, something going against it should feel foreign and uncomfortable to us, which emphasizes the discomfort felt by our narrator. The breathy "h" sounds in "harsh" and "harbor" make the narrator sound breathless, like their discomfort is evident even in their narration. Overall, this sentence allows readers to dwell not just on the unnatural state of the lights, but also on the idea that nature, personified provides a safe haven, a "harbor", for the "harsh things" in the world. This sentence is complex in its repetition and provides readers with much to consider.
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AnalysisComing Soon
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AnalysisComing Soon
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