Emily Bernard Scar Tissue Analysis

Being stabbed is something that, by the consensus of everyone everywhere, is not considered even remotely pleasant. Why would anyone want to be stabbed? Or to be placed into a situation with the possibility of being stabbed? Unfortunately for some people, as with the author of this article, are thrust into the situation without any warning and must deal with the consequences of the situation for the rest of their lives. In Emily Bernard’s article Scar Tissue, the author recounts the events of her stabbing and how she remembers versus how it was described by the media and police reports. She also recounts about how the stabbing had affected her life as a whole in the years after the event at a New Haven coffee shop. By using tone, varying levels of diction, irony, and the way she organizes the article and uses examples, Bernard effectively addresses people, who may not understand the permanent effects of being stabbed, about how being stabbed can greatly alter the rest of …show more content…
Pandemonium. Bedlam. Topsy-turvy. Madhouse. A holy mess. All hell broke loose. The room turned upside down, on its back, inside out, went crazy, flipped out. Other words, other clichés. Fear erupted like a seismic shift in the earth’s surface, and then charged and pierced and saturated the room like smoke. Fear – a good friend to me that night – chased me toward the back door. (65)
This description of the chaos and fear that occurred when the stabbing started does not seem to be a description of how Bernard felt about the situation, but rather, how and outsider or a storyteller might describe the situation without any firsthand knowledge of the event. It shows a sense of irony in that she describes the event in such extreme terms even though she did not feel the same way about the event she described. This organization, self-awareness, and sense of irony continue throughout the rest of the article when she talks about meeting her husband and discussing her scar with her