Guest Blogger: Christian C.

As I was copying the description of my perfectly imperfect grandmother from my Literary Techniques packet to my Writer’s Notebook after school today, the importance of diction really hit me. Diction may be defined simply as word choice. However, this element of an author’s style is responsible for quite a bit. It is diction’s duty to convince the reader; to change one’s perspective. Although extra baggage is not generally viewed as an attractive feature, Garrison Keillor describes sagging stomachs in such a way that makes one prideful of his or her weight in Home. “Most men wear their belts low here, there being so many outstanding bellies, some big enough to have names of their own, and be formally introduced. Those men don’t suck them in or hide them in loose shirts; they, let them hang free, pat them, they stroke them as they stand around and talk.” Likewise, the abilities of my Grandma’s wart to smile and her slow, limp-like hobble to be friendly and welcoming are due to diction. The word choice creates characters and molds the reader’s opinions of those characters. Another example which is hopefully familiar to our AP Lit Class is the portrayal of characters in Grendel versus those in Beowulf; the most obvious being Grendel. In both works he is a human-hunting beast. However, in Grendel, the reader feels sorry for the misunderstood monster, and even if he or she doesn’t agree with Grendel’s nihilist outlook on life, may like his character.. Unferth shows another sample of differing diction. In Beowulf, he is merely a mouthy jerk, and in Grendel, he is an under-appreciated yet still disliked by at least Grendel) persevering, loyal hero. The diction in Dante’s Divine Comedy, The Inferno, however, varies greatly with that in the works mentioned above. There are no fun twists included to glorify the circles of Hell.. Instead, the word choice is used to reveal how horrible every detail of each circle really is. For instance, Cerberus is described as more than a dog-like, flesh-feeding, beast: “Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,/ And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;/ He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.” These lines also show the complexities Longfellow decided to use in the syntax of his translation. The unusual structure makes for a reading experience in which one can only hope to refrain from pulling one’s hair from his or her head.