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Amanda Bortle
Mr. Ehret
AP Language and Composition
March 15, 2008

“Coatesville” Analysis

John Jay Chapman addressed his speech in 1912 at a prayer meeting held to commemorate the lynching of a black man in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He bitterly expresses his anger about the fact that “one of the most dreadful crimes in history” was not stopped by the Americans in their cars and suits simply watching the catastrophe happen. He openly says that he understands that legal action has been made to prosecute the criminals of the act and that the failure of the prosecution is mere proof of the great guilt of the whole people. Chapman recounts to his two person audience the day he read in the paper of the black man who was burned alive while well dressed American citizens watched and how not one had the courage to stop the cruelty. He says that this event revealed to him the heart of America, rather the heart of a criminal. The audience stands still and aloof in the midst of crime and cruelty with nothing provoking them to act. The lack of the American people that day portrayed them as helpless- waiting for something other than themselves to act. Through this act of violence, Chapman saw what the world’s true need was and he knew that he could not forget what he had seen. The wickedness, he quotes from a friend, of America is of the slave trade of three hundred years. This crime has accumulated over the years and America can not suddenly rid themselves of its effects. He then says that anyone looking on a violent has the duty to repent because they were involved. He reveals that our need is new life; as slavery and then the war over slavery hit the world, also came the “cure” and the realization of what the initial evil was. Chapman addresses a specific moment in history and expands the causes and effects to the American people. He traces the path from times of slavery to the present and speaks of the need for a new life- the gradual process of discovering truth from centuries of evil.

Vocabulary:
Blighted: verb. Turned pale
Paralysis: noun. Loss of motion in certain part of the body

Tone:
Bitter, anger

Rhetorical Terms:

Metaphor- “I seemed to get a glimpse into the unconscious soul of this country. I saw a seldom revealed picture of the American heart and the American nature. I seemed to be looking into heart of a criminal…” (p.72)
Simile- “The people stood like blighted things, like ghosts about Acheron…” (p.72)
Parallelism-“The opposite of hate is love, the opposite of cold is heat; what we need is the love of God and reverence to human nature.” (pg. 72)
Metaphor- “With the great disease (slavery) came the climax (the war), and after the climax gradually began the cure, and in the process of the cure comes now the knowledge of what the evil was.” (pg73)
Word choice/Diction- “On the next morning the newspapers spread the news and spread the paralysis until the whole country seemed to be helplessly watching this awful murder…” (pg. 73)

Discussion Questions:

What is the true need that Chapman believes that “we” need?
How does the writer’s style in the second paragraph relate to the second to last paragraph?
Is the concept of Americans just watching evil happen before their eyes without any action still present in 2008? And do you think we are still in need of a “new life”?

“Knoxville: Summer or 1915” Analysis

James Agee’s 1938 essay titled “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” is a first person narrative of summers spent in Knoxville, more detailed of the sounds of the summer evenings and “fathers of families”. Agee describes the street his home was on as a mixed sort of block with lower class families and middle-sized houses and intertwining yards separated by puny shrubs. The adults of the time didn’t have intimate relationships with other adults, however made an effort to say hello if one ran into the other in town. He details the evening with fire flies, flopping frogs, and children playing in the street with the supervision of their fathers on the front porch, while the mothers remained inside cleaning up after dinner. Agee then states that what he wishes to speak of is the atmosphere of the evenings- the fathers of families in their own lawns. An intense description of the watering hoses held by the men and the sounds the hoses make in the night, pitched much alike, follows. The noise of the locusts is dry and the sounds of the creatures seem to be coming from nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, he reveals that sounds of the evenings are “habitual” to the summer nights, and one would only recognize the sounds if one catches themselves listening. He then describes the time of the evening when men put away their hoses and go back to their homes; families sit on their porches rocking and watching the night unravel. Agee concludes with the image of his father, mother, uncle, aunt, and himself lying on a quilt in the wet dew of the night watching the stars. His meditation reveals his appreciation for “his people” and he asks God to remember in their time of need. James Agee’s essay shows the beauty of summer nights through the detailed illustration of sound and atmosphere. His traditional and classic American living is exemplified through his reflection.

Vocabulary:
Jut- noun. Overhang
Trivially-adverb. Insignificantly
Contemporaneous- adj. at the same time
Desists- verb. To stop or discontinue
Quietude- noun. Calmness
Elliptic- adj. Having the form of an ellipse
Assailant- noun. An attacker

Tone:
Calm, reflective

Rhetorical Terms:
Simile- “There was still daylight, shining softly and with a tarnish, like the lining of a shell…” (pg.171)
Simile- “…re-crossing their traceless footsteps like the lifetime journeys of bees…” (pg.171)
Simile-“…and a pitch as accurately tuned to the size of stream as any violin…” (pg. 172)
Parallelism- “That, and the intense hiss with the intense stream; that, and that same intensity now growing less bur growing more quiet and delicate with the turn of the nozzle…”(pg. 172)
Personification- “Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her…” (pg. 175)

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Analysis

Zora Neale Hurston’s 1928 essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” encompasses the realization of her colored skin and the times where she has no race, where she is only herself. Her first person account begins with her life as a young girl in a small Negro town of Eatonville, Florida. She described how the wealthy Northerners and Southerners would pass through the town and the Negros of the town would hide in privacy by the timid whites. However she, like other courageous people, would sit and watch them pass through. Hurston called the place she sat on her porch “a gallery seat” where she watched and conversed with the white people and they too exchanged the greeting. Here she felt like the only difference between the Negros and the whites was that the whites were just passer-bys. When she was sent to Jacksonville at the age thirteen for schooling he color became more apparent and she was no longer the accepted Zora of Eatonville, but rather a little colored black girl. However she did not mind the color of her skin and had athe hurtle of her relation to slavery far before people reminded her that she was a granddaughter of slaves. In her new life the color of her skin stood out so much more than ever because she was one of few Negros in front of a white canvas. However even in the midst of white she felt herself and embraced the Zora that she once was, where her color was not defined. Hurston’s use of imagery and many rhetorical strategies aid in her reflection on her life as a colored person and the realization that even in a sea of white, she still did not belong to any race or time and even through discrimination we are all people and race is just one of the man things that makes up a person.

Vocabulary:
Deplore: verb. To condemn or criticize
Circumlocution: noun. A roundabout way of saying something

Tone:
Reflective, personal

Rhetorical Strategies:
Metaphor- “Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you.” (pg. 115)
Personification- “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said ‘On the line!’ The Reconstruction said ‘Get set!’; and the generation before said ‘Go!’…” (pg. 115)
Imagery- “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” (pg. 116)
Metaphor- “I am a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea.” (pg. 116)
Hyperbole- “[the orchestra] It constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies.” (pg. 116)
Metaphor/Personification- “This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with the primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond.” (pg. 116)
Simile-“My pulse is throbbing like a war drum.” (pg. 116)
Imagery/Simile-“I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow.” (pg. 117)