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Essay
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Reflection
Geraldo No Last Name
Sandra Cisneros has a definite and unique style in her short story "Geraldo No Last Name." Her sentence structure in the story is composed of simple, direct sentences, contrary to other writers who write long, elaborate, and confusing sentences in their pieces of writing.
Every single sentence in the story is short. Most sentences are only five to six words long. There is only one sentence that reaches up to a maximum of twenty-nine words, and it is only that long because it is a sentence meant to be a run-on: "And maybe if the surgeon would've come, maybe if he hadn't lost so much blood, if the surgeon had only come, they would know who to notify and where." Besides that one long sentence, the do not even come close to length. By making the sentences concise and without long, elaborate words, the reader can infer that the speaker is one who is possibly not very well educated.
Instead of two sentences together to create one, Cisneros separates them to create shorter sentences; many of them are fragments. She chooses to write, "No address. No name," instead of "No name and address." She does the same in another part of the story: "You know the kind. The ones who always look ashamed." Those two sentences can also easily be combined to create one sentence. In doing this, her style is maintained throughout the entire story. Again, the reader can see that either the speaker's first language is not English, or he or she has not been schooled to speak with correct grammar.
Cisneros does not use commas to divide two thoughts (that should be combined into one complex-sentence), but instead uses periods. In places where there are supposed to be commas or even semi-colons, the sentence is ended. When the speaker says "He wasn't anything to her," the idea is not yet complete. The next sentence reads "He wasn't her boyfriend or anything like that," and finally the reader knows for sure the reason why "he wasn't anything to her." This type of sentence structure is cause-and-effect, because when the speaker says "he wasn't anything to her," the subsequent sentence answers, or supports the reason why Geraldo was nothing to Marin.
Cisneros' sentence structure, together with her diction and tone help to create the feeling that the story gives, one that is informal and colloquial in language. This short story can easily be read and sounds as if someone really is telling a story; with its informal, short, fragmented sentences. Of course, this type of sentence structure is used to support the fact that the story is set in an area of Chicago where English is not the primary and most-spoken language, and correct English is not something that is strictly adhered.
Reflection
I seem to have the most difficulty with writing essays that deal with analyzing style, as I did with this one. Because there are so many possible answers, I quickly got confused, and while writing this essay, became a little repetitive in my main ideas. The prompt of this essay was to analyze and evaluate author Sandra Cisneros�s style in her short story �Geraldo No Last Name�. I understood what style was and what it consisted of, but somehow, I still couldn�t write the essay to the best of my ability. For example, I wrote that Cisneros used short, choppy sentences as opposed to long ones, but only went that far. I wasn�t able to think past that and get into deeper detail. Also, my weakness fell upon writing the thesis, which was so weak that it couldn�t support the whole essay. Since this is probably where I am weakest at, I will work the hardest on it next time.
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