Alliteration: “nobbed and needy urchins…snapping shrimps…snails and spiders…rattlesnakes, and rats” (27).
Parallelism between opposing views of stove: “a silver-scrolled monster” (40). “With the great stove came pride, and with pride, the Palace became a home” (41).
Anaphora: Constant repetition of “When” (57).
Personification: “the Row seems to hang suspended out of time in a silvery light” (81).
Rhetorical Question: “But how could they have anticipated Mack’s new method” (88).
Situational Irony: “[The Captain] was indebted to Mack and the boys” (90).
Zeugma: “As the afternoon and the whiskey went down the enthusiasm rose” (116).
Simile: “His heart was as bruised as his mouth” (131).
Alliteration is the key component to Steinbeck’s style. He relies on the repetitions on consonant sounds to establish a smooth flow and illuminate certain phrases. It also seems to give the novel a quicker pace with its rapid alliteration such as the example on page 27.
The opposing views of the beaten-down stove draw a parallel between different groups of society. The symbol of the stove demonstrates how Mack and the boys take nothing for granted and see this piece of left out trash as the pride of their home. While most civilians look on it as, “a silver-scrolled monster,” the thrifty gang sees it as a treasure. Their cheap nature gives them the view of the, “true philosophers.”
After being beaten by Doc for ruining his house, Mack is revealed to have a true conscience underneath his selfish exterior. The fact that his heart aches more than his wounds shows that Mack was truly trying to do well by Doc by throwing him a party. He is shown in a different light through this simile and his guilt greatly builds to the character of the troubled man. Until this point in the story, Mack was viewed as a flat character.
I felt that your choice of examples covered a wide variety of aspects of the novel, which meant that you could provide an analysis that pertained to the entire book. Also, the analysis itself was very detailed and I particularly enjoyed your description of the beaten-down stove to illustrate the parallelism not only in structure, but in content as well. I would, however, mention more about how these rhetorical strategies affected Steinbeck's style of writing, which is very unique and demonstrates the author's intelligence. Rather than going so deep into the explanation of each rhetorical strategy, it might be more beneficial to state how each rhetorical strategy makes up a component of Steinbeck's writing style.
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