My Essay on Mary Roach
When you are in the checkout lane at a grocery store, you can always witness the many unusual magazines with the weirdest articles, pictures, and topics, such as an article about an amputee-bowling league. You might wonder to yourself, “Who writes this stuff?” The answer to these questions is Mary Roach. She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1981.After college, she and some friends made a trip to California for vacation and to have an enjoyable time. At that time she had no job prospects, and spent a few years working as a freelance copy editor before landing a half-time job in the public relations office at the San Francisco Zoo. When she found little free time in her busy work schedule, she wrote freelance articles for the local newspaper's Sunday magazine. Eventually, her editors and co-workers moved on to more prestigious publications, and took her along with them. From there, she found success writing “oddball” columns and articles for Outside, Wired, GQ, Salon.com, and The New York Times Magazine, and several other well-known magazines. She won many awards for her unusual columns including runner-up in the humor category of the 2005 National Press Club awards for her column named "My Planet" in Reader's Digest. She found most success when she decided to tackle science for her two latest books, Stiff and Spook. Roach has a popular and distinct writing sense that keeps the reader engaged and her pieces are also very easy to understand.
While reading these books, Roach’s tone is the most distinct factor of her writing that you will immediately obtain. Tone is very important in sending the message from the author to the reader, and it displays the writer’s attitude. Because Mary Roach is an accomplished column writer, her tone is based around the way she writes for magazines and websites. It’s apparent that she is very personable, sarcastic, and her dry sense of humor comes to play in both books. Her longtime fascination with peculiar things makes her very calm about very shifty subjects, such as death. In Stiff, she is around human cadavers during the entire book, and she eventually no longer identifies the bodies as “people” but as tools in scientific experiments. It is actually very darkly humorous to read Stiff and see how calm she can be around people who have passed on. Fortunately, Spook is told with the same light touch and playfulness as the Roach’s first book. In Spook, you can tell she is very interested in finding out more about “life after death”, which makes it very enjoyable for the reader.
The biggest and most definite difference between Spook and Stiff, is the use of detail and use of facts in these books. Stiff is based on scientific observations and experiments, and everything is about facts. The entire book is based on the aid that cadavers have been towards the scientific world. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been used, alongside surgeons, making scientific history and not getting any credit. The whole book is facts upon facts, which does not leave a ton of room for questioning. Spook, on the other hand, does leave tons of room for exploration and questioning. There are not many solid-grounded points proven in Spook, because it is impossible to prove anything about “life after death”. She tries to find many scientific and non-scientific methods to finding out “What happens when we die?” but she finds no proof and gets no conclusion in her book. She repeatedly reminds the read that in Spook, she is not trying to change the belief of the read, but in reality she is trying to discover her own odd questions about death. The information Roach gains in both books leads to a exciting journey to read about and makes you definitly think about what you believe in.
In some opinions, Roach’s best characteristic is the imagery she puts into the reader’s mind. The graphic situations and sights she deals with are vividly told on paper very well, and make the reading experience very enjoyable. All five senses are alive when you read her works, and in Stiff, dead bodies give a lot of room for a good writing containing much imagery. The body farm exploration gives enough imagery to make a grown man quiver in disgust. The idea of a research facility based on observing bodies rot is very intense, but Roach handles it like a professional. When Roach visits the “practice” plastic surgery sessions, where lopped-off cadaver craniums are used, she descriptivly tells how donating your body to science might mean you are helping a rich snob get a better face lift.
Figurative language is a keen part of developing the major important elements to a work of literature. Figurative language or speech contains images. The writer, Mary Roach in this case, describes something through the use of unusual comparisons, for effect, interest, and to make things clearer. The result of using this technique is the creation of interesting images in the audience’s mind. Alike imagery, Roach’s background in article and column writing makes her stand out in this category. All the elements of language fall under figurative language. An example of an element of language found in Spook, is the irony that takes place. The irony of the entire book is that her purpose was to determine what happens to our souls after death, but she finds little evidence to support anything at the end of the novel. Mary Roach is very first-rate when it comes to choosing the correct choice of words and how to put an image into your head. In both books, Roach has a sassy and sarcastic touch throughout the entire book. It is very humorous to read how dull she can be while discussing operations on cadavers, and haunting ghosts. Her voice provides room for some dark humor, but yet can be a little disturbing at the same time. Overall, the figurative language Roach provides allows the reader to interpret the words she uses, and have been a solid grounding for the success of Stiff and Spook.
Diction is the appropriate choice of language to an audience. Diction is a key factor in determining a writer’s tone, attitude, and character. The types of diction Roach uses in both books varies vastly differs throughout the course each entire book. The journeys that Roach endures on in Stiff and Spook, the interviews Roach conducts, the short stories she tells as background information, and the personal information she provides all help the reader understand the diction she is using. In Stiff, the diction is pretty informal throughout the novel, and the book is almost like she is talking to you personally. There is no point where she abides by the technical or formal sense of writing, and she develops her own methods, which work great for her. In Spook, there is a trace of formal writing here and there, because she describes certain accounts of hauntings and stories of the afterlife more vividly. Roach obviously still is telling the audience about her voyage to discovering the afterlife, but she goes very in depth on the people she meets and explores with. The books Roach writes are very easy on the mind when a person reads them because Roach is so personable and informal with her diction. This could be a main reason of why so many people love her books.
The ability to make a piece of writing flowing is a main part of keeping your audience very engaged. If a book is full of long and boring sentences, then the reader will become bored stiff. If the book is filled with short and non-descriptive sentences, then the reader will be confused and not think highly of the author’s writing abilities. Mary Roach is very enticing when it comes to writing a well balance of long, short, and medium sentences. Like anything in life, you need a well balance of things, it is the same for writing literature. When Mary Roach is trying to convey a point, she might use a variety of short and choppy sentences to catch the reader’s attention, and it could play in part to her ability to use humor in writing. Since Roach is a very entertaining author, she never rambles on and bores the audience. Both Stiff and Spook are very easy to understand partially because of the great sentence structure she uses. Her writings never become confusing and they always are engaging, because she knows how to correctly use sentences to deliver her messages. In both books, Roach asks rhetorical questions in the middle of paragraphs in order to keep the audience thinking and wondering about subjects. Her variety of sentences is also based on the fact that she sometimes is “talking” to the reader, and being very personable while she writes. No matter what types of sentences Mary Roach uses in her books, there is never a point where the reader would ever think that the book is either boring or choppy. Roach attains the goal of keeping the audience always engaged and never doubting her ability to write amazing literature.
In Stiff and Spook, Mary Roach meets many characters that help her successfully answer all of her questions. Roach travels on long journeys in both books, and meets some of the most interesting people alive. She tackles the opportunity to properly characterize them in her books by use of great descriptive verbs and lots of background information. Every time a new character is introduced, Roach give about a paragraph of biographical information on that particular person, in order to let the audience know why Roach chose this person to help her. For example, in Spook, “You may be relieved to hear that my next guest does not believe in leprechauns. He has an M.D. from Stanford and an undergraduate from Yale in chemical engineering, with a special interest in thermodynamics and information theory.” This kind of character information helps the reader better relax knowing that this person is educated and understands everything he/she is discussing. Roach deals with an assortment of soul-searchers, scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, doctors, ministers, and dead people. She correctly characterizes each person and spends enough time to directly let the reader know what kind of person each character is in both books.
In both Stiff and Spook, the author’s purpose is what the novel is based on. In Spook, Mary Roach tried to find out what happens when we die. She goes all around the world searching for the answers to questions people have always asked. In Stiff, Mary Roach uncovers the history of cadavers since science and religion began. She puts her life and passion into each book, and she tries her best to discover every yearning question she desires to know the answer to. As weird and offbeat as both books get, Mary Roach manages to convey a sense of respect and appreciation for subjects, whether it be dead bodies or dead souls.