Friday, June 6, 2014

Feathers: Author's Use of Descriptive Language




Woodson uses descriptive language very well in this book, perhaps because it's written in first person and when Frannie describes something, for me it's like painting a picture. When she describes the "Jesus boy", I picture him tall, skinny but most of all having wavy hair with curls. She also describes her brother Sean quite well explaining how she thinks he's beautiful and she's ordinary. She also explains the rec center which is familiar as she describes the smell of sweat and loud kids running around. That's sums up pretty much any community recreation center. In telling us how her mother is now pregnant again, the death of Lila, and the other babies not making it all the way, you can almost feel her pain, yet understand a bit of sibling rivalry being she's the baby that made it. Not so much jealousy, just that she wants her mother not to go through the hardship and pain all over again. When she sees the Jesus boy at the rec center and they start talking just before Trevor starts picking on him again, you can also sense the tension in that moment and in the moment after his father comes to pick him up. There are a few books I can think of that paint a descriptive picture with words, but for me my most vivid memory ban would be a Stephen King novel, particularly The Gunslinger. I've read that book multiple times, and couldn't put it down. The Dark Tower Series is by far one of my most favorite books, as well as The Hobbit. I think there has been more than one book to paint a vivid picture for me, but these would be two of the ones that painted a picture that stayed with me throughout the years. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm a total Tolkien fan too, and I agree that he is probably the most descriptive writer I've ever read. I liked that you wrote a lot about Woodson "showed" instead of "told" how the characters were feeling. I think this way of writing, where the author uses descriptions to create feelings and create mood and tone is excellent and Feathers is a great example of this. I think several passages from Feathers would be great to use as examples for writing practices in the classroom.

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