3rd Block Agenda
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Warm-Up: LOL!
Txtng is killing language. JK!!
Announcements
Allusion of the Week
Rhetorical Devices: Parallelism, Chiasmus
Finish Outlining The Three Types of Reading
Today’s Objective: Understand Rhetorical devices Parallellism and Chiasmus
ALLUSION of the Week
DIONNE
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
but thy eternal summer shall not fade.
Phat! Did you write that?
CHER
Duh, it's like a famous quote.
DIONNE
From where?
CHER
Cliff's notes.
• FROM:
Clueless, 1995
• FROM SOURCE:
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
(When in doubt, it’s from Shakespeare, or
the Bible.)
• Cher is writing a forged note to Ms. Geist, supposedly
from Mr. Hall, and includes a quote lifted from
Shakespeare. She says she got it from “Cliff’s Notes,”
meaning that she most likely didn’t read the poem
herself, and doesn’t know who actually wrote it. This
underscores Cher’s childish ignorance, both of literature,
and of adult relationships, particularly because of the
content of the poem itself. It is a love sonnet in which
“Thy eternal summer shall not fade” is intended to mean
NOT that the woman will never grow old, but that the
poem itself will give the woman eternal life because it
was written for her. It is a poem, in other words, in
celebration of ORIGINAL poems written for lovers, so it’s
particularly ironic that Cher got it from Cliff’s Notes for a
forged love note.
Parallelism
• Definition: The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical
patterns.
• Examples:
• "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we
shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,
support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the
success of liberty.“ (John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address)
• "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.“ -- Abraham Lincoln,
Gettysburg Address (here delivered by Jeff Daniels)
• On the test: Parallelism is everywhere, and will certainly be on
the test in some form or fashion. When you see it, consider the
ways that it reinforces a point through repetition and/or the way
it adds rhythm and balance to the composition.
Chiasmus
• Definition: might be called "reverse parallelism,"
since the second part of a grammatical construction
is paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order.
• So, a parallel sentence would go like this:
– A , B; A, B
• Chiasmus would go like this:
– A, B; B, A
• Example:
• Tell me not of your many perfections; of your great
modesty tell me not either.
• Just as the term "menial" does not apply to any
honest labor, so no dishonest work can be called
"prestigious."
Chiasmus (cont)
• On the test: Chiastic structures help to place the emphasis of a sentence
where the writer wants it to go. This is most useful in your own writing.
Use a chiastic structure when a parallel structure doesn’t seem to work.
• Which sounds better?
• On the way to school, my car ran out of gas; then it had a flat on the way
home.
• On the way to school, my car ran out of gas; then on the way home it had
a flat.
• Don’t ask what your country can do for you.
Instead, try thinking about what you can do for
your country.
• An optimist sees an opportunity in every
calamity, while just the opposite is true for a
pessimist.
• It was not their prerogative to question why they
were being ordered to charge; their only option
was to charge and be killed.