Sandwich Story
The extract from Roads to Quoz, An American Mosey by William Least Heat-Moon uses particular ways to focus on form, structure, language, and how the travel writer presents himself. The main style of writing used in travel writing is structure. Throughout the experience of this sandwich-making store being shared, many forms of sentence structure shape the story.
The setting of the story takes place in ‘little Lanesboro to Joe’s Country Store’. It is in the eastern corner of Pennsylvania as ‘in the eastern corner’ a sandwich ‘can be a hoagie’. The ‘Country Store’ is a grocery store that sells sandwiches or ‘hoagies’.
The sentence structure in the text varies in almost every other sentence. There are complex sentences, lists, parenthetical commas, and hyphens used in the writing. For example, one sentence was talking about how a ‘sandwich of several names’ is used in Pennsylvania. The writer used a colon to introduce the different names of sandwiches in different parts of Pennsylvania. The travel writer uses a list of ingredients to show how much food and sauces go on their sandwich. The amount of ingredients on the sandwich shows how the writer is very prestigious and plentiful as they ask for a lot. The list was, “...green peppers, banana peppers, pepperoncini, pimento olives, Greek olives, sliced tomatoes, chopped lettuce, two kinds of sharp cheese…”. The parenthetical commas and hyphens split up the sentence by adding information in the text. For example, “...Bert - more commonly a Betty or their grandmother…”. Another example is, “In Joe’s, Betty was Patricia, the third in line…”. This changes the structure of the sentence as it gives more context to what is being said.
The form of the is a travel writing which is formatted as a blog. It is structured in a few lengthy paragraphs to give detailed information about the setting, thoughts, and characters in the writing. The text was written in first and second-person points of view. For example for first-person the writer uses, ‘I finished’ and ‘I expected’. The Second-person is used when he described what someone else is saying to him. For example, “‘You might be interested in this’, she said…”. Throughout the travel writing, it is written in the past tense as the story has already happened to the traveler. The writer uses words such as, ‘finished’, ‘sat’, ‘handed’, and ‘published’.
A literary feature in the text is a complex simile. In the travel writing, it says, “...even though a franchise sub is to a well-filled grinder from a grocery as shaken milk is to a milkshake.” This is a complex simile as the travel writer is taking two different objects and comparing them to each other. The simile is described as an object that can’t ‘go without’ the other. A milkshake can’t be made without shaken milk.
In addition to the literary features, there are some descriptive words used throughout the text to create imagery. For example, ‘old village’, ‘blurry snapshot’, and ‘yellowed news clippings’. The words ‘old’, ‘blurry’, and ‘yellow’ give the reader the sense that the store and the products on the side, as the historical pamphlet, are vintage or old as used in the description. This imagery helps create a picture of the setting and how the ‘Country Store’ may look.
The travel writer uses certain word choices to show that they have a western accent. For example, words like, ‘Mama’ and ‘parlours’. Most people without a western accent would say ‘mom’ to address their mother. I also believe ‘parlours’ is more of a western term as I would replace the word ‘parlour’ with the word ‘shop’ or ‘store’.
The sentence structure in the text varies in almost every other sentence. There are complex sentences, lists, parenthetical commas, and hyphens used in the writing. For example, one sentence was talking about how a ‘sandwich of several names’ is used in Pennsylvania. The writer used a colon to introduce the different names of sandwiches in different parts of Pennsylvania. The travel writer uses a list of ingredients to show how much food and sauces go on their sandwich. The amount of ingredients on the sandwich shows how the writer is very prestigious and plentiful as they ask for a lot. The list was, “...green peppers, banana peppers, pepperoncini, pimento olives, Greek olives, sliced tomatoes, chopped lettuce, two kinds of sharp cheese…”. The parenthetical commas and hyphens split up the sentence by adding information in the text. For example, “...Bert - more commonly a Betty or their grandmother…”. Another example is, “In Joe’s, Betty was Patricia, the third in line…”. This changes the structure of the sentence as it gives more context to what is being said.
The form of the is a travel writing which is formatted as a blog. It is structured in a few lengthy paragraphs to give detailed information about the setting, thoughts, and characters in the writing. The text was written in first and second-person points of view. For example for first-person the writer uses, ‘I finished’ and ‘I expected’. The Second-person is used when he described what someone else is saying to him. For example, “‘You might be interested in this’, she said…”. Throughout the travel writing, it is written in the past tense as the story has already happened to the traveler. The writer uses words such as, ‘finished’, ‘sat’, ‘handed’, and ‘published’.
A literary feature in the text is a complex simile. In the travel writing, it says, “...even though a franchise sub is to a well-filled grinder from a grocery as shaken milk is to a milkshake.” This is a complex simile as the travel writer is taking two different objects and comparing them to each other. The simile is described as an object that can’t ‘go without’ the other. A milkshake can’t be made without shaken milk.
In addition to the literary features, there are some descriptive words used throughout the text to create imagery. For example, ‘old village’, ‘blurry snapshot’, and ‘yellowed news clippings’. The words ‘old’, ‘blurry’, and ‘yellow’ give the reader the sense that the store and the products on the side, as the historical pamphlet, are vintage or old as used in the description. This imagery helps create a picture of the setting and how the ‘Country Store’ may look.
The travel writer uses certain word choices to show that they have a western accent. For example, words like, ‘Mama’ and ‘parlours’. Most people without a western accent would say ‘mom’ to address their mother. I also believe ‘parlours’ is more of a western term as I would replace the word ‘parlour’ with the word ‘shop’ or ‘store’.
Comments
Post a Comment