Friday, August 21, 2015

A Sweet Devouring by Eudora Welty

           Eudora Welty is a well-known American author. Throughout her career she has won many awards and honors. Some of these include: many O’ Henry Awards, National Book Awards, National Medal for Literature, and others.
            In this essay Welty writes with the purpose of explaining the love for books. This purpose was when she said, “The pleasures of reading itself ­— who doesn’t remember? — were like those of a Christmas cake, a sweet devouring” (Welty 247).  This quote shows her purpose, which is made obvious since it quotes the title of the essay in it. This purpose is also supported by the numerous examples that Welty brings up in the essay.
            Throughout it, Welty made many references to her childhood memories of reader. She described the books she has read, the ones she has received as presents, and her trips to the library to read books.
            With an audience of other book lovers, Welty makes sure to use a lot of pathos in her essay. All of her flashbacks in time show a lot of emotion. For instance, Welty writes, “I coasted the two new books home, jumped out of my petticoat, read (I suppose I ate and bathed and answered questions put to me), then in all hope put my petticoat on and rode those two books back to the library to get my next two” (Welty 248). This quote shows a lot of emotions when it comes to her love for books. There is a lot of anticipation and excitement shown. By adding the parentheses she adds little comments to what she is saying to show even more emotion. This makes the reader able to connect to what she is saying which makes her purpose more present.
            I don’t think Welty did a great job when it came to showing her purpose. For the most part she jumped around from example to example and I thought it veered away from her purpose more than it did support it.  

(A picture of books with a quote that I believe Welty lived by. Credit: kriscamealy.com)

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