Rhetorical Analysis
Diction
Jeffrey Eugenides is a very good writer and this book was a very easy read. He used very good and descriptive words, but they weren't discreet or difficult to understand. They made sense. The narrators of this book were the neighborhood boys, who are growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, so there was no slang or illiterate speakers.
Imagery
I could picture the events that took place in this book very well. I could also picture what the characters and the places in this book looked like, as well. Eugenides used very descriptive words that helps the reader get a clear picture of what things look like. An example of this descriptive essence is when the narrators describe the Lisbon sisters in detail. As a reader, I could now distinguish the sisters and get a sense of who they were as individuals.
Irony
It was incredibly ironic when the paramedics discovered that Cecilia was holding a Virgin Mary in her hands when she tried to kill herself the first time. The Virgin Mary is an example of purity, so it is ironic that the girls use her picture so much because, according to the Bible, suicide is an incredibly awful sin and only the most unpure people commit that sin.
Motifs
Throughout the book, the main themes were the neighborhood people's unwillingness to be unhappy and the sisters' lonliness and isolation. Without these important and intricate themes, this book would just have been another pointless, meaningless book on the shelf.
Jeffrey Eugenides is a very good writer and this book was a very easy read. He used very good and descriptive words, but they weren't discreet or difficult to understand. They made sense. The narrators of this book were the neighborhood boys, who are growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, so there was no slang or illiterate speakers.
Imagery
I could picture the events that took place in this book very well. I could also picture what the characters and the places in this book looked like, as well. Eugenides used very descriptive words that helps the reader get a clear picture of what things look like. An example of this descriptive essence is when the narrators describe the Lisbon sisters in detail. As a reader, I could now distinguish the sisters and get a sense of who they were as individuals.
Irony
It was incredibly ironic when the paramedics discovered that Cecilia was holding a Virgin Mary in her hands when she tried to kill herself the first time. The Virgin Mary is an example of purity, so it is ironic that the girls use her picture so much because, according to the Bible, suicide is an incredibly awful sin and only the most unpure people commit that sin.
Motifs
Throughout the book, the main themes were the neighborhood people's unwillingness to be unhappy and the sisters' lonliness and isolation. Without these important and intricate themes, this book would just have been another pointless, meaningless book on the shelf.