Adam Kurschner
English 105H
Ewald
Rhetorical Analysis
Throughout John McPhee’s article “In Search of Marvin Gardens,” he is
constantly referring to dogs while he describes the settings of places in Atlantic
City. Often, as he is walking down the street, he casually mentions the dogs he
sees and what they are doing. I would like to explore why the author is focusing
on dogs rather than the people in the city. I would also like to see if the
references to dogs he uses in the text correlate to other aspects of the story. By
doing this, I can discover if the references he uses reflect his personal views of
dogs, and if these references are happening solely by chance, or if they are used
in specific situations and have some significance to the story.
“In Search of Marvin Gardens” is an excerpt from the book, Pieces of the
Frame. It is a 15 page non-fictional work that was published in 1975 by Farrar,
Straus and Giroux. This excerpt has two parallel story lines, the first of which
tells of the author playing in the International Monopoly Singles Championship of
the world. He is playing in a best of seven series for the title against a familiar
opponent he has faced thousands of times before. The other story line follows
the author as if he is actually walking through Atlantic City, traveling to all of the
places on the Monopoly board that he lands on during his games.
For this artifact, I will be using metaphoric analysis. This will allow me to
discover if the dogs are representative of something significant in the city that he
is trying to convey to the reader. I will start my research by looking at McPhee’s
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article as a whole, and looking at the context of the metaphors in the entire piece
and how they relate to the setting, his mood and his position on the Monopoly
board. I will then isolate and sort the metaphors he uses in his article that relate
to dogs. By sorting these metaphors, I will be able to see if they are connected
with other aspects of the story like the author’s mood and the setting. I will then
examine the metaphors, which will allow me to look at each reference to dogs
and see if there are any patterns that occur with how and when he is using each
metaphor. Finally, I will analyze the metaphors he uses in the text and look at
what he is trying to convey through each reference to dogs. I will then be able to
figure out exactly why the metaphors are used in each place in the text and what
significance they have.
All through this artifact, McPhee uses many different metaphors to
describe both the setting and his mood in the game and in Atlantic City. For
example, in one instance he describes his opponent’s luck as “becoming
abrasive” (McPhee 83). In another section of the text, he describes the setting
by saying that the street lamps “drop cones of light on broken glass” (McPhee
76). Throughout the whole text, metaphors like these are constantly used to
describe the setting of the story, the author’s mood and his reactions to the
events that are occurring both on the Monopoly board and at his parallel position
in Atlantic City. The metaphors that stick out the most in my mind, however, are
the ones where he involves dogs in his description of the setting.
In this article, he chooses to refer to dogs while describing the setting of
Atlantic City in two specific places. The first place they appear is on Vermont
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Avenue, one of the cheapest properties on the Monopoly board, where they are
seen “limping through rubble, ruins, fire damage and open garbage” (McPhee
75). Also in this scene are signs of a poverty-stricken city. For example, on
Vermont Avenue, “doorways are gone” and “Lath is visible in the crumbling walls
of the buildings” (McPhee 75). At this point in the story, the author is at the
beginning of the first game of a best of seven series. The result of this game will,
in the end, positively affect his mood because he will eventually win when his
opponent concedes due to his poor financial position.
The next time we hear of dogs is when he is located on the two cheapest
properties on the Monopoly board, Mediterranean and Baltic Avenue. The dogs
are now seen traveling in packs and are all around him as he visits these places.
While he is here, he spots a German shepherd in the back of a police car that is
eying him and a sign on a chain-link fence that warns, “Beware of Bad Dogs” as
he strolls down the streets of the so called, “Bombed out ghetto” (McPhee 81).
Once again, he seems to be connecting dogs with the area’s disorder and
disarray. While he is here, he spots signs that the residents of Mediterranean
and Baltic Avenue are also in financial trouble. Evidence of this can be seen
when he comments that the people here “go off to wait in unemployment lines,
they wait sometimes two hours” (McPhee 81). These events occur during the
fourth game of the best of seven series. In this game, his opponent has taken
both Boardwalk and Park Place and as a result, his mood will be lowered
because he will eventually be forced to surrender the game.
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In each of the references McPhee makes to dogs, he uses them while he
is on the side of the board where properties are found to be significantly less
expensive. In both places, the mention of dogs appears right next to descriptions
of broken windows, rubble and in general, run-down areas. In contrast, as the
writer progresses around the board, coming to the more expensive, luxurious and
desirable properties, the dogs are no where to be seen. The dogs simply
disappear right along with all of the other infamous signs of a neighborhood that
has gone bad. In fact, excluding the lower priced properties, no animals are
seen anywhere in Atlantic City. Because of where McPhee chooses to place his
references to dogs, it seems as if he associates packs of dogs with places that
are poverty-stricken. McPhee gives the impression that he thinks packs of
unleashed dogs are synonymous with a city being poor and out of order. It also
appears as if he has an unfavorable personal view of dogs, or he believes that
they are of low significance because they are only seen running wild through the
ghettos along with other stereotypically unimportant features, and never in the
more high profile areas of Atlantic City. Overall, it looks as if he is trying to
structure reality for us by telling us that dogs are associated with financial
instability and are a sign of chaos within a city.
After looking at where and when McPhee chooses to refer to dogs in this
excerpt, I believe a definite pattern can be found. Although the narrator’s mood
varies from one situation to the next, and has nothing to do with his references to
dogs, the correlation between his references and the setting is quite clear. He
evidently associates packs of dogs with cities being poor, in disarray and
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hazardous places to live. Because he uses dogs in his descriptions more than
once, and in the same type of situation, I think it is safe to assume that the
metaphors are not placed there simply by chance. I believe that McPhee is, in
fact, implying something on a deeper level with each of these not so random
references. McPhee is implying that dogs, especially in packs, are signs of
poverty within an area. Because of this fact, it shows that he does not have a
positive view of dogs. If he did, he would include them in the better-off
neighborhoods of Atlantic City to show that they are not only connected with
places that are financially unstable. I believe that McPhee uses his references to
dogs instead of talking directly about the area or its residents. By using these
same references time after time, he paints a clear picture about what his
personal view of dogs is and what he believes they represent.
Adam Kurschner
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Ewald 105H12