Adult life is messy, gross, and all around nasty. Nothing is more of an example of this than dinner dandruff. At least according to Robert Fulghum’s “Dinner Dandruff”, where he describes the disgusting life of an adult. Fulghum explains that life will be gross at times, but you will need to power through it, because that’s what adults do. He uses a mixture of syntax, diction, and imagery to show how gross life as an adult is.
Fulghum uses a mixture of very long sentences, followed by a punchline. This helps give the article it’s humorous feel. An example of this is when he he tell about how he learned a new French word to discribe this filth, he said “Once, in school, I came across the French word ordure, and when the teacher told me it meant ‘unspeakable filth’ I knew exactly what it referred. We had it every night. In the …show more content…
He paints us a picture when he says “...I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon BAREHANDED--a kind of mad courage” he uses the words “wet”, “fish around”, and “BAREHANDED” to describe the scene almost like the reader is there. Fulghum also uses imagery when he says “...I knew that the stuff could congeal and mush up and mutate into some living thing that would crawl out of the sink…” his use of imagery really allows the reader to really feel as if a disgusting creature is born from this filth in the sink. Using this imagery also assists the jab technique the Fulghum is using by setting the scene even more before the punchline. It’s very obvious to see how imagery helped in this line from “Dinner Dandruff”, “My father never came closer than three feet to the sink in his life. My mother said he was lazy. But I knew that he knew what I knew about the gunk.” it is easy to see how he uses the imagery of his father never coming closer than three feet to the sink, to show how he understood the gunk was
Fulghum uses a mixture of very long sentences, followed by a punchline. This helps give the article it’s humorous feel. An example of this is when he he tell about how he learned a new French word to discribe this filth, he said “Once, in school, I came across the French word ordure, and when the teacher told me it meant ‘unspeakable filth’ I knew exactly what it referred. We had it every night. In the …show more content…
He paints us a picture when he says “...I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon BAREHANDED--a kind of mad courage” he uses the words “wet”, “fish around”, and “BAREHANDED” to describe the scene almost like the reader is there. Fulghum also uses imagery when he says “...I knew that the stuff could congeal and mush up and mutate into some living thing that would crawl out of the sink…” his use of imagery really allows the reader to really feel as if a disgusting creature is born from this filth in the sink. Using this imagery also assists the jab technique the Fulghum is using by setting the scene even more before the punchline. It’s very obvious to see how imagery helped in this line from “Dinner Dandruff”, “My father never came closer than three feet to the sink in his life. My mother said he was lazy. But I knew that he knew what I knew about the gunk.” it is easy to see how he uses the imagery of his father never coming closer than three feet to the sink, to show how he understood the gunk was