Consider: Whenever he was so fortunate as to have him near him a hare that had been kept too long, or a meat pie made with rancid butter, he gorged himself with such violence that his veins swelled, and the moisture broke out on his forehead.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, �Samuel Johnson�
Discuss:
1.) What effect does the detail (the spoiled hare, the rancid butter, the swollen veins, and the sweaty forehead) have on the reader?
The effects the details have on the reader are very meaningful. It brings the reader into the story and creates a very vivid picture. It makes the man seem very hungry and some what angry at the same time. He also gives images that are not visual. He describes the food�s smells which are even greater sensory details.
2.) How would the meaning of the sentence be changed by ending it after him?
It would be very mild, and you would not get the feeling that the man is very angry and very very hungry.
Consider: An old man, Don Tomasito, the baker, played the tuba. When he blew into the huge mouthpiece, his face would turn purple and his thousand wrinkles would disappear as his skin filled out. Alberto Alvaro Rios, �The Iguana Killer�
Discuss:
1.) The first sentence is a general statement. How does the second enrich and intensify the first? The first sentence is very basic and uncomplex. The second one seems so rich with details with because the first one has no details at all. The seems so extraordinary
2.) Contrast the second sentence with the following. When he blew the tuba, his face turned purple and his cheeks puffed out.
It is very different because there are not as many details. It still contains all of the same things in it, one just appeals to the senses more.
Consider: CHARLEY (to WILLY): Why must everybody like you? Who liked J.P. Morgan? Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath he�d look like a butcher. But with his pockets on he was very well liked. Now listen, Willy, I know you don�t like me, and nobody can say I�m in love with you, but I�ll give you a job because � just for the hell of it, put it that way. Now what do you say?
- Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
Discuss:
1.) Who was J.P. Morgan? What is a Turkish bath? What picture comes to mind when someone is said to look like a butcher? How do these details contribute to the point Charley is trying to make?
JP Morgan is a major investor. A Turkish bath is a sauna or a steam room. A butcher always seems very big and bulky. He trying to say that if JP Morgan had no money nobody would like him, but since he does people are falling over hand and foot to be friends with him.
2.) How would the passage be different if Charley said J.P. Morgan would look like a baker in a Turkish bath? It wouldn�t quite mean the same because some bakers are female and some are very small.
Consider: To those who saw him often he seemed almost like two men: one the merry monarch of the hunt and banquet and procession, the friend of children, the patron of every kind of sport; the other the cold, acute observer of the audience chamber or the Council, watching vigilantly, weighing arguments, refusing except under the stress of great events to speak his own mind.
Winston Churchill, � King Henry VIII,� Churchill�s History of the English- Speaking People�s
Discuss:
1.) Churchill draws attention to the contrasting sides of Henry VIII through detail. How is the impact of this sentence strengthened by the order of the details� presentation?
You first see what the King is like on the outside, then Churchill takes you behind closed doors and shows you what the king is really like. This also helps make a deeper effect on the reader.
2.) What is Churchill�s attitude toward Henry? What specific details reveal this attitude?
Churchill does not like the man at all. He says he never speaks unless he cracks under pressure which is really bad for a king. Also that he his very vigilant and cold.