Beauty by Robin Mckinley
"The ground was carpeted with petals, and yet none of the flowers were dead or dying; they ranged from buds to the fullest bloom, but all were fresh and lovely. The petals he and the horse trampled underfoot took no bruise." (p. 71)
Beauty is a book filled with wonderful descriptive settings. Mckinley used vivid descripiton and detail that allows the reader to truly experience the setting. However, she dosn't allow these descriptions to take away from the story line. This is shown wonderfully when Beauty's father comes to the rose garden. Because these details arn't distracting from the plot or the characters. Instead it gave the reader an improved understanding of the enchantments that this mysterious castle holds, "the petals...took no bruise". I would like my writing to reflect this style because I feel it is important to keep the reader captivated in the writing. I don't want to lose my reader throught too much detail, but instead use detail to further explain the concepts I'm trying to convey.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Harper. 1978.
Beauty is a book filled with wonderful descriptive settings. Mckinley used vivid descripiton and detail that allows the reader to truly experience the setting. However, she dosn't allow these descriptions to take away from the story line. This is shown wonderfully when Beauty's father comes to the rose garden. Because these details arn't distracting from the plot or the characters. Instead it gave the reader an improved understanding of the enchantments that this mysterious castle holds, "the petals...took no bruise". I would like my writing to reflect this style because I feel it is important to keep the reader captivated in the writing. I don't want to lose my reader throught too much detail, but instead use detail to further explain the concepts I'm trying to convey.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Harper. 1978.
Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky
"In a rage, she seized the braids and coils of Rapunzel's silky hair and sheared them off" (p. 23).
Words choice is a great way that Zelinsky improved the story of Rapuzel. He made it more enjoyable because the language used is filled with imagery. Through using words like seized, coils, silky, and sheared the reader can experience rather than just comprehend this scene. The phrase silky hair gives the reader the impression that the hair was beautiful and valued. The word sheared is most commonly used when cutting sheep wool, chippy and uneven. This gives the reader a sense of curtness; not caring how the hair came off, just so long as it did. The use of vocabulary is of great importance in writing. There just wouldn't be as much meaning if the text had read, "and the sorceress cut her hair". I want the word choice in my writing to be a carefully written as Zelinsky's.
Zelinsky, Paul O. Rapunzel. Illustrated by author. Dutton Children's Books, 1997.
I remember reading Beauty. McKinley's version is so enchanting because of her word choice and her gift for making the reader feel like they're right there watching the scene unfold with the characters. She also uses punctuation in interesting ways, making two equally important thoughts flow together seamlessly.
ReplyDeleteThe Rapunzel sentence is also another fine example of powerful word choice. The way she describes Rapunzel's hair makes me want to touch it! Is that weird?