Thursday, September 6, 2007

Beverly Lowry, "The Shadow Knows"

Woah, this is a really intense essay. I was totally sucked into it--I didn't even stop to make notes in the margin (and that's weird for me!). Such powerful writing! Compelling language. Great pace. She keeps us constantly involved through her wonderful use of characterization, her attention to dialogue, her blending of description with the things she imagines. It's beautiful, well organized, horrifying. The quotation I've chosen to use here is an example of Lowry's use of characterization:

"Luther makes statements like this, statements that clearly--to him--have some
kind of resonance. And then he will pause, waiting for a
response, I can't tell to what. After a beat, he goes on."
(259)


This is a much more effective way to show the reader what Luther is like rather than just saying, "Luther says some weird things about his son." Reading it, we get an idea of just how the conversation flows between the writer and this man in addition to the words that they said. Lowry's words make this character pop up off the page--we can almost see him, watch his "potato face" as he speaks indirectly about his boy. Awesome writing. The characters, including the narrator herself, are dynamic.

No comments: