Once again, this could be a stretch, but when I was writing the definition for anastrophe (a.k.a inversion), I was a little confused as to how this could be applied in reali literary works. However, I believe I might have found an example on page 15. The latter part of the sentence, which reads, “...all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at loss for things to carry.” In previous sentences, “they carried” (or some version there of) appeared at the beginning of the sentence, but in this particular example it is at the end. As to why the syntax allows for the phrase to be at the end, I think it has to do with the fact that here, O’Brien is not talking about what they carried as he did previously, but instead he explains how in their (the soldier’s) minds, they have assured themselves they would always have something to carry- be it something physical or be it emotional or something untangible. In order to convey this to the reader, I think the writer purposefully uses anastrophe as a “red flag” to pay attention to the point being made.
No comments:
Post a Comment