*Rhetoric Study*

Throughout The Shipping News, Proulx does a very good job providing the reader with a mental picture of what is going on. As I read it, it is very easy for me to imagine what is going on, like watching it as a movie playing in my mind. Proulx's use of vivid imagery and details add a lot of life to the seemingly gloomy town in the story, Newfoundland. During some chapters, she will go on for pages just describing the scene, while in the meantime using many different rhetorical devices to provide even more description.

"Blunt fogbows in the morning trip around the bay. Humps of color followed squalls, Billy Pretty babbled of lunar halos. Storms blew in and out. Sudden sleet changed to glowing violent rods, collapsed in rain. Two, three days of heat as though blown from a desert. Fibres of light crawling down the bay like luminous eels." (191)

During this excerpt, Proulx uses short, choppy descriptions of the bay, which seems to be her style. Although she uses many short sentences, she makes them work together well, and makes them flow together. She uses strong verbs and adjectives like "glowing violent rods" and "humps of color." She displays personification when stating "fibres of light crawling down the bay", making the light seem like it is some sort of creature. Also, she uses a metaphor when stating "two, three days of heat as though blown from a desert" and a simile when she compares the light to luminous eels.

"Wavey's little house was mint green on the ground floor, then a red sash. The boy's scarlet pajamas on the clothesline, bright as chile peppers. A pile of tapered logs, sawbuck in a litter of chips and bark, split junks of wood ready to be stacked.
Two fishermen beside the road, lean and hard as rifles, mending net in the rain, the wet beading their sweaters. Sharp, Irish noses, long Irish necks and hair crimped under billed caps. One looked up, his glance sprang from Wavey to Quoyle, searching his face, knowing him. Netting needle in hand." (183)

In this passage, Proulx again displays her love for vivid imagery as she describes Wavey's house. Everytime a new area is explored in the book, Proulx gives a description of it before going on about anything else. As she sets the scene, she uses similes such as "bright as chile peppers" and "lean and hard as rifles" to exemplify the description already provided. Then, in the last sentence, she uses an example of assonance, "netting needle in hand" which is such a simple statement, but by using assonance, makes it seem more complex.

Proulx uses many rhetorical devices, with her main ones being similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and assonance. When she is not writing the dialogue of the characters, much of the time she is providing us with very detailed descriptions and her interesting diction helps to keep me wanting to read.