A Stylistic Analysis of What Is Poverty

吳麗娟

（黑龍江外國語學院 黑龍江哈爾濱 150025）

A Stylistic Analysis of What Is Poverty

吳麗娟

（黑龍江外國語學院 黑龍江哈爾濱 150025）

1.Introduction

The essay What Is Poverty talks about what life is like without money from a poor mother’s perspective，who has three children.The whole essay is full of common words and simple short sentences（loose sentences），which imply the poor education“I”have received.Both the first person and the second person are used.The first person is used when talking about the misery poverty has brought to“me”，and the second person（including imperative sentences）to pull the audience close to the miserable life“I”am experiencing so that the audiences are able to have sympathy with“me”.The main stylistic features will be analyzed in terms of diction（choice of words），syntax（choice of sentences）and rhetoric（figures of speech）.

2.Stylistic Analysis of the Passage

2.1 Diction

The diction of this passage is the use of common and colloquial words in English.For example，in the first paragraph，such words like dirty，smelly，stench，and in the second paragraph，privy，illness-stained，long-cooked etc. Numerous words of this category are used.The reasons why the authors use these words are：first，to imply the poor education“I”have received；the other is to indicate“my”status-a poor mother who is full of anger and complaint -so that from such a point of view，the meaning of poverty is more vivid and convincing because“I”am suffering from this kind of miserable life by“myself”.

2.2 Syntax

The syntax is the use of simple and short sentences（loose sentences）.For instance，in 14 paragraphs（there are 15 paragraphs in the whole passage.）there is a short and simple sentence as the topic sentence to summarize the central idea of the paragraph.Another feature of syntax is the use of imperative sentences.As is the case in the first paragraph：“Listen to me.”“Listen without pity.”“Listen with understanding.”There are four sentences of this kind out of the total of 9.Thus，in this way we can easily feel that“I”in the passage am talking face to face with the readers so that it can easily arouse the readers’sympathy with“my”miseries.The author makes use of a skillful method to introduce the pitiful and low-educating background and her eagerness to complain of the miserable life to the audience.

2.3 Rhetoric

Though the whole passage is full of colloquial words and short-simple sentences，it is not lack of wonderful rhetorical devices，such as metaphor，antithesis，repetition，irony，and in the largest number，parallelism.

（1）Parallelism.Over 15 parallel structures are used throughout the passage.Such examples are numerous in the entire passage，with one or even two parallel structures in each paragraph.The most gracious one is the one formed by the topic sentence of each paragraph.They all have the same structure“Poverty is…”.These sentences summarize well what poverty is in“my”opinion.They explain the meaning of poverty and what it brings about in“my”life，and what“I”have to do without money-even discard“my”dignity.As is mentioned above，these structures organize the passage logically.

（2）Repetition.In the first paragraph，the author uses“Listen to me”twice to beg the audience to listen to her misery brought about by poverty.In the third paragraph，the author uses such two sentences：“I listened politely—the poor are always polite.The poor always listen.”We can find an interesting fact that in the sentences such words as“the poor”，“l(fā)isten”and“polite（ly）”are respectively used twice.This smart use of words indicate a deep meaning：the poor can not be“impolite”in front of those rich people，which means that they don’t even have the basic human rights to speak loud before others.

（3）Antithesis.In the first paragraph，the author uses one：“…with no‘proper’underwear on and with the stench of my rotting teeth near you.”Here，the phrase“with no”and the word“with”form a strong contrast to mean they have no what they should have but have what is not needed.Another one is used in the tenth paragraph：“…behind the bars of their prison instead of behind the bars of my poverty.”This sentence has a deep meaning that though her daughter can not get what they want by stealing，she won’t pass her life in prison.This indicates that“I”think freedom and innocence are much more important.

（4）Metaphor.Two typical metaphors are used in the 13th paragraph：“Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away.Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away.”Here poverty is compared to two different things—acid and chisel.They can destroy pride and honor just as acid can rust metal and chisel can cut a piece of wood.“I”mean poverty can destroy one’s daily life but what’s worse，it can destroy a person’s dignity and esteem.

（5）Irony.One example appears in the same paragraph：“…everything went for good then，as it does now.”Imagine the situation they were in at that time：they had three children and the husband“had a few odd jobs”，and the house was in bad repair.So how could their life or everything go for good？Thus，this is an irony to satire their bad situation resulted from poverty.

3.Conclusion

The author narrates and explains what poverty is mainly from the first person perspective.It is impressive for the readers to feel“my”personal experience and feeling as if I were a lively person in front of the readers.Though the whole passage is full of common and colloquial words，short and simple sentences（loose sentences），some common rhetorical devices，it is quite appropriate for a poor person like“me”to narrate the whole story.Thus，it is a ruthless complaint and denounce of the capitalist society in which people can not really have an ordinary life if they are poor.At the end of the passage，the author appeals to the readers，especially the poor not to be silent any more；instead，they should stand up and ask for the human rights they should have-to get rid of poverty and struggle for an ordinary life.

吳麗娟，1982年生，祖籍江西省上饒市，哈爾濱工程大學外國語言學及應用語言學碩士，黑龍江外國語學院英語系講師，主要研究方向：美國亞裔文學，跨文化交際學等。

The paper examines the stylistic features of the passage What Is Poverty in the points of diction，syntax and rhetorical devices to reach the conclusion that the appropriate style serves the successful expression of the theme.

stylistics What Is Poverty diction；syntax rhetorical devices

秦秀白.文體學概論.長沙湖南教育出版社.1986.