Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Stanton uses all of these techniques in The Declar Essays - Fiction

Stanton uses all of these techniques in The Declaration of Sentiments. In the first paragraph, for instance, she establishes a formal, righteously indignant tone. "Tone" is the stance an author takes toward her subject matter or audience. The words she chooses help set this tone. Phrases like "hitherto occupied" make it clear that she has chosen to take a formal, elevated tone to the work. And words and phrases like "laws of nature," "nature's God entitle them," and "impel" make her righteous indignation equally clear. "Cadence" refers to the delivery of the selection, which, in the Declaration of Sentiments, is almost in a poetic fashion. For example, opening paragraphs flow with sentiment, while in the later paragraphs, facts are stated briefly and directly in a staccato fashion. The opening three paragraphs are poetic in nature. Stanton uses poetic, lyrical language, like "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government . . . " She also uses lengthy sentences and paragraphs. Later, the listing of offenses consists of intentionally short, choppy single-sentence paragraphs, such as "He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead." They are direct and succinct so that when they are spoken, they are more like demands than statements. The type of language used in the Declaration of Sentiments varies from section to section, but in general, the language is direct and formal. It is often also connotatively charged and evocative. "Connotation" is the subjective cultural or emotional association attached to a word. Words like "zealous" and "untiring," in her final paragraphs, for instance, have a generally positive, motivational connotation. And phrases like "overthrow the monopoly of the pulpit" and "equal participation" can be associated with ideas of justice, revolution, goodness, and equality. Stanton ends the Declaration on a positive, inspirational note by including such evocative and connotatively charged language in her final paragraphs.

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