On the road to berlin - analysis & reading questions PDF

Preview

Summary

Analysis of the text on the road to berlin...

Description

Analysis 1. Activate prior knowledge ● Speaks about Normandy landings, so it’s most likely about D-Day and World War II ● The title On the Road to Berlin probably means that it is the Allies final destination after landing in Normandy ● Unfamiliar word: barge ○ “A flat-bottomed boat for carrying freight, typically on canals and rivers, either under its own power or towed by another.” 2. Classify the essay as formal or informal ● Informal ● Uses a lot of imagery to describe ongoing war ● Conversational tone - uses of first-person ● Personal anecdote ● Writer is important as topic because it is his experience walking on a war-torn beach in Normandy 3. Identify the essay’s pattern of argument ● Exposition ○ Reports and informs about an event (Normandy landings) 4. Identify the essay’s structure ● Narrative essay ○ Tells and story ○ Evaluates the battle and the author’s own experience witnessing the destruction 5. Determine the method of organization ● Spatial order ○ Details are presented as seen ○ The corpses of fallen soldiers as well as their belongings, the dog looking for its owner, new soldiers coming onto the beach ○ Also helps the reader to visualize how the beach is like and where everything is 6. Determine the thesis and the author’s viewpoint ● “On the beach lay, expended, sufficient men and mechanism for a small war. They were gone forever now. And yet we could afford it.” ● The author views that even with the deaths of soldiers during the war, there are still resources that remain to continue on ● Explicit, stated in the essay 7. Types of proofs ● Anecdote ○ The essay is based on a story told by the author

●

Emotional appeal ○ Creates a sympathetic reader after reading about what the soldiers went through during the Landings

8. Analyze the writer’s style ● Foreshadowing ○ “It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever.” ○ It helps to set the tone initial as a little suspenseful, before transitioning into a more sorrowful tone ○ Makes the reader curious as to what comes next, as the “some of the them sleeping forever” hints towards death ● Personification ○ “[The tennis racket] lay lonesomely on the sand, clamped in its press, not a string broken.” ○ The personification of the racket can be compared to the soldiers who have lost their lives in the war and can symbolize the survivors left unharmed, continuing on despite the deaths of their comrades, as well as witnessing so much destruction ○ Adds onto the sorrowful tone, as not everyone survived the war and it caused so much damage ● Imagery ○ “The strong, swirling tides of the Normandy coast line shifted the contours of the sandy beach as they moved in and out.” ○ Since it’s a descriptive essay, lots of imagery is present to help picture the full scene of the beach ○ Imagery helps with developing the mood, as the reader is picturing all of the scenes and “seeing” the wreckage themselves 9. Examine the effectiveness and limitations of the essay ● The idea of a descriptive essay is to provide enough detail so that a reader can visualize what the author is trying to describe, which is something that this essay does really well ○ “On the beach lay snarled rolls of telephone wire and big rolls of steel matting and stacks of broken, rusting rifles.” ○ Easy to picture the scene ● There was a bit of repetition was what was mentioned in the essay, which can cause a reader to lose interest to read about something that was already mentioned but in a different descriptive way

Reading questions 1. Sometimes essays do not have a clear thesis statement, but this one has an obvious purpose nonetheless. What is the purpose (dominant impression) of this essay. Locate a sentence that states the thesis and explain why you chose this sentence. A sentence in the essay that states the thesis is, “On the beach lay, expended, sufficient men and mechanism for a small war. They were gone forever now. And yet we could afford it.” I chose this sentence because it reflects what the author goes on to describe in the essay, which is the wreckage that war causes. There are dead soldiers on the beach, accounting for the “expended, sufficient men” and that it was affordable with the new wave of soldiers rushing onto the beach and continuing to fight in the war. 2. Why is the essay called, "On the Road to Berlin"? What does the title have to do with the content and purpose of the essay? This essay is called On the Road to Berlin because it correlates with D-Day in World War II. After the Normandy Landings, the Allies pushed to liberate areas under Nazi occupation. During this process, they headed towards Berlin, where Hitler was located. The title has to do with the content and purpose of the essay because the author details the destruction in one of the beaches that the Allies fought on. 3. What is the tone (author's attitude toward subject matter) of this essay? Offer words, phrases or examples to support your answer. Pyle conveys a tone of sorrow through this essay. He uses phrases such as “Writing paper came second. The boys had intended to do a lot of writing in France. The letters— now forever incapable of being written—that might have filled those blank abandoned pages!” By using phrases like this one, Pyle allows the readers to experience the soldiers’ hardships and reality. 4. What point of view does the author use in the narration of this essay? What effect does it have? With the use of the pronoun of “I”, the point of view that’s used in the narration in this essay is in first person. First person, paired with the vivid descriptions that Pyle uses, the reader is able to easily connect to the text and imagine themselves on the beach themselves. 5. This descriptive passage is essentially a catalogue of the casualties of war: human and equipment. Select two of the most effective descriptions for each category of casualty and list them. Why are these four so effective in your opinion?

Human casualty 1. “Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know they were in the water, for they were dead.” 2. “He was completely covered except for his feet; the toes of his GI shoes pointed toward the land he had come so far to see, and which he saw so briefly.” These two are effective because they depict the deaths and the tragedy associated with war. The first quote shows the multitude of soldiers who have lost their lives in almost a peaceful manner, like all of their worries are gone. With the second quote, it focuses on a single soldier. The second half of the sentence highlights the tragedy part of war, having a great impact on the reader. It’s easy to picture these images with the way that they are described. Equipment casualty 1. “There were trucks tipped half over and swamped, partly sunken barges and the angled-up corners of jeeps and small landing craft half submerged. And at low tide you could still see those vicious six-pronged iron snares that helped snag and wreck them.” 2. “There in a jumbled row for mile on mile were soldiers/packs. There were socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bibles, hand grenades. There were the latest letters from, with the address on each one neatly razored out—one of the security precautions enforced before the boys embarked.” These two quotes are effective because there is variety in the equipment being discussed. The first quote talks about equipment that was used in the war, while the second speaks about equipment on the soldiers. The lists of the types of equipment add to the detail and help with the effectiveness of the passage. 6. Identify two instances of irony in this essay. Are they effective uses of irony? Why or why not? How do they contribute to the overall description? a. “It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore.” This is ironic because it isn’t “a lovely day for strolling along the seashore.” The beach is full of alive/deceased soldiers and equipment. War and despair are written all over the beach, creating an unpleasant area to stroll along. This is an effective use of irony because it emphasizes how the beach would have been prior to and after the war. It contributes to the overall description by demonstrating how war can alter a singular place. b. “The most ironic piece of equipment marking our beach—this beach first of despair, then of victory—was a tennis racket that some soldier had brought along. It lay lonesomely on the sand, clamped into its press, not a string broken.”

The quote is ironic because it mentions how a tennis racket remains untouched and in perfect condition despite the destruction around it. In the previous paragraphs, the author details the destroyed equipment and deceased soldiers, but then there is suddenly a tennis racket that hasn’t been harmed. The racket may symbolize those who made it through Normandy untouched, which makes it an effective use of irony, especially with the death and destruction surrounding it. It is like a glimmer of hope, which adds to the mood and provides a better picture of the beach. 7. Pyle uses contrast frequently to highlight the differences between the living and the dead and between the success and costs of such an invasion. Identify two examples of contrast and explain how they achieve his purpose. The first example of contrast is, “There was a dog still on the beach, still pitifully looking for his masters.” Pyle mentions that the dog has survived while the masters have died, contrasting life and death. The second example is, “Two of the most dominant items in the beach refuse were cigarettes and writing paper. Each soldier was issued a carton of cigarettes just before he started. That day those cartons by the thousand, water soaked and spilled out, marked the first savage blow.” The cigarettes were in a fresh and “alive” state before the war, but then became “water soaked and spilled out”, making them “dead.” The use of cigarettes highlights the contrast between life and death as well, like how the soldiers were alive and how some had lost their lives. 8. In the essay find an example of each of the following rhetorical devices below. In your answer, quote the relevant phrase and provide a minimum two-sentence explanation of how the device reinforces the main idea of the passage. a. Simile: “It extended in a thin little line, just like a highwater mark for miles along the beach.” For context, this quote is about the personal gear of deceased soldiers and how the beach was littered by these items. Here, Pyle compares the normal waterline for a beach to the line formed by the soldiers’ gear. This device reinforces the main idea of the passage because it gives the reader more visualization of what the beach looks like. It also mentions the many casualties with both human life and equipment, which are two important points of the essay. b. Metaphor: “In this shore-line museum of carnage there were abandoned rolls of barbed wire and smashed bulldozers and big stacks of thrown-away life belts and piles of shells still waiting to be moved.” Pyle mentions a museum in the passage, which is a place where people would go to view historical artifacts. He makes the comparison to all of the abandoned and destroyed equipment, like how the display of these items on the beach is like its own museum. The main idea is reinforced because the passage speaks about the destruction that war brings, shown with this device. c. Personification: “Snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the

sand.” This passage helps reveal the life that the soldiers had to leave behind to fight in the war. Ultimately, since these soldiers are deceased, neither the soldier nor their family will be able to see each other again. The device used in this passage helps to evoke emotion from the reader, sympathizing with what the soldier and their family have gone through. It once again shows the destruction and carnage that war brings....