Literary Analysis, Essay Example

Some stories can be so boring to read while others are so interesting to impress the reader along with the story as he or she reads it. “Water liars,” is one of the stories that readers will not be able to escape reading. The author, Barry Hannah, talks about his life with his wife that entailed the trust they had towards each other. They lived for a long time before they decided to confess the truth about their past relationships to each other which made the author heartbroken. Instead of happiness and partying during the party, the writer ends up being heartbroken and sad (Barry, 1978). This makes him engage in drinking. As the reader goes through the story, he can easily get swept along by the physical setting of the story. The reader can easily move step by step through the story.

The author uses different styles in writing. Some of the writing styles he employs in his writing include dialogue, figurative language, word choice and other literature styles. He uses dialogue in almost half of his writing. Starting from paragraph 15, he uses dialogue to show the discussion between the different personalities in the story. This conversation involves the old geezer, Sydney Farte, and a new young man (Ruth, 1998). The young man is telling the story of his daughter Charlotte having making love with an old man in the bush. This conversation makes Sydney Farte upset, and he responds back telling the old young man that he should have avoided telling the story in that place. Dialogue is an essential style in writing stories because it serves an vital function in writing. Dialogue in this story helps us to understand the characters involved faster. The reader can easily understand how hurting it was for the old man to see his own daughter get involved with an old man, who might be even older than him. Then we are able to understand the character of Sydney Fart as being temperamental as he gets upset with the story. Old geezer is portrayed in the story as being inquisitive because of the questions he asks while being told the story. Dialogue in the story also helps the story to move forward and at the same time establishes character and character relationships. It also reveals conflict among the characters involved in the information in the story (Martyn, 2007).

Another style used in the story is the variation of sentence length, structure and position of the sentences. Some of the sentences are long while others are unusually short. The first paragraph of this story contains mostly of long sentences. This is then followed by much variation of sentence length. The structure of the sentences in the story also changes and this brings about liveliness in the story. The different sentence lengths helps in enlivening the story and emphasizing critical points in the story. This brings about the rhythm in the story (Mark, 1992). The position of the sentences in the paragraphs vary. For instance, paragraph one starts with a sentence that is in the continuous tense while the rest of the paragraphs start with sentences in the old tense. This is an indispensable style as it breaks boredom in the story. Paragraphs also contain sentences that vary in number. Some paragraphs have many sentences while some have as less as one sentence. Sentence structure changes throughout the story. Almost all the sentences in the story have unique beginnings. Same beginnings of the sentences especially using the words ‘It’, ‘They’ and ‘I’ can be tedious to the reader. Different beginnings of sentences also help in bringing emphasis to the points that are being explained in the story. Some sentences used in the story are written in pigin English to express the illiteracy of the people involved. For example, the old gazer asks the others whether they knew what the people he saw at the river were using for bait using incorrect sentence structure. This sentence structurally is wrong. Correct English should have been replacing was with were (Mark, 1992).

The third style that is portrayed in the story is the choice of words used to tell the story. Some of the words used include gaw, nather night, nuthin. This words might have been used intentionally to emphasize the points in the story. They are not English words but are engaged in the story. Word choice in a story is used to express character. The words used are necessary because the story is an informal writing. The words, therefore, can be used to show the writing used whether informal or formal. The author says that no poor mouthing to mean he does not want people to start talking that he is poor. This choice of words is great aimed to reduce boredom.

There is also use of figurative language in the story. The author says that his vacation at Farte Cove was not like that easy little bit one can get as a rich New Yorker. This can be used to figure out how the author was lacking money at that time. Another instance where the author has used figurative language is when he says that of the old liars as to mean human being in paragraph one. The author also says, a new young man, whom he goes ahead to say appeared as if he had surrendered. This is used for the reader to figure out that actually the young man said was not young. He was old in appearance but behaved as a young man. He says the old liars are lining up and that they always change because some of them are always dying of constipation (Barry, 1978). This might not mean humans but creatures probably plants. Dying of constipation only happens to humans and thus using them to refer to this creatures is personification. He finishes his story saying they were crucified by the truth. This is also personification as he implies that the truth crucified them. Truth cannot be human to crucify people thus a clear indication of personification. The ghosts are also personified by being said that they can make sounds. In the dialogue, they say that Doctor Mooney had intercourse with the ghost of Lily. Ghosts are immortal and cannot be tangible. Therefore having intercourse with a ghost is impossible.

There is also evidence of the use of irony in the story. Barry refers to the man in the dialogue as being young while in reality the man is sixty years old. He refers to the man in the dialogue as a younger man while the man is actually sixty and the face of the man looked old. It is also ironical when the author says that he is poor and unable to pay the bills in the house. This is ironical because he can afford to go on a holiday on the riverside. The same poor person is able to buy a lot of alcohol that he enjoys taking with friends while at the riverside. The author also describes his wife as being handsome and delicate while naked. This is ironical as women cannot be handsome but beautiful.

There is evidence of sound devices usage in the story. When the old man tells the story on how he found his daughter and the old man, he says that they were making sounds on water that scared them like ghosts. Similes are also used in the story. The author has compared things in the story using the term ‘like’ more than once. Examples used in the story include when the old man says his daughter and the old man were making sounds over the water scaring them like ghosts.” The same man also says in the start of his narrative that they heard sounds like there were ghosts. This is direct comparison of the sound made to that made by ghosts. The author also uses similes when he compares his vacation at Farte Cove with the easy little bit gotten as a rich New Yoker. There are two comparisons in this sentence. There is the comparison of the vacation to the little bit, and then the little bit is compared to the rich New Yoker (Martyn, 2007).

There is a use of idioms. For example, the author says that he left Cove to rest in the pretense that he is in a fishing work. This statement cannot bring out the direct meaning that it is supposed to express in this story (Barry, 1978). The reader needs to be attentive in the story to derive the meaning of this statement. For example, this statement could mean the author got bored and had to pretend he was fishing so as not to go home yet. There is also the use of hyperbole in the story. The sense of doctor Mooney seeing the ghost could be hardly believable. It is further said that Lily turned to be wax right under the doctor. All these could not be believed that easily.

One of the things that make the story “water liars” interesting to read is the way the author has developed his theme. He has used a variety of writing styles in his write up. Figurative language is used in the story to bring about liveliness in the story and gives the story substance. Throughout the story, the reader can visualize what is happening in reality while reading. It also brings out the images the words could not have brought and adds interest to the story. It also helps readers to remember the story through figuring it out in their minds. Without the figurative language, the story could be boring to read to the readers.

There is evidence of the use of the tone in the story. In the first paragraph, the author use says the son of man pronouncing his name Farte in French while stressing the last syllable. This can be heard by the leader as to how he pronounces the name. Tone usage comes out clearly here. In the dialogue, the facial expressions and the tones of the individuals voices while communicating can be felt by the reader. For instance, when the geezer asked “what”, the reader can easily imagine the high voice while asking the question (Ruth, 1998). Also, the facial expressions can be easily felt as that of a person eager hear what is being said. The tone of the old man telling the story about his daughter having intercourse with an old man can be felt as being low because that is a sad story to tell. The author also says that the man showed a face of somebody who has not gotten over what had happened to him before.

The story “Water Liars” by Barry Hannah is about the ways the author employed in an effort to erase the stress he has in the head. The setting of the story helps to personify the difficulties and the hardness they face in life (Martyn, 2007). The author and his family face the challenges of poverty but remain hopeful that they will get through it soon which the author refers to as next year. The other characters also face ghosts which haunt them in their lives. This is what they discuss while they are have their time together.

References

Barry, H. (1978). Airships. U.S.A; Grove Press.

Mark, J. (1992). Barrey Hannah, Review. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers.

Martyn, B. (2007). Perspectives On Barry Hannah– New York, NY: Harper and Row. .

Ruth, D. (1998). Barry Hannah: Postmodern Romantic. U.S.A; Louisiana state university press.