David Wallace Foster Writing Style

An author 's voice, style, tone, and intent is the way an author expresses their writing that is personalized and distinguishable only to them. It can not be replicated or copied by any one but the author themselves. The style is what is used to fit a specific context and or purpose. The voice helps the author express their style by adding personality. The tone is an author 's attitude to the topic. The intent is the main message the author is trying to get across to the reader. Authors that have achieved success in their own ways are Atul Gawande, Dave Cullen, Malcolm Gladwell, and David Wallace Foster. Each of these four authors wrote literary pieces that inspired thinking. Each use their writing to express their ideas and get their readers …show more content…
During Foster’s speech he gives a story about two young fish who meet an older fish. The older fish greets them and ask how the water is. The two young fish later ask what water even is. The point of this story is that the most obvious and important realities can be the hardest to talk about. Foster ingeniously uses stories as a metaphor to explain situations in life. Foster includes wisdom in his speeches to give the readers advice that they can use for the future. A big point in his speech is learning how to control how you think. To pay attention to your surroundings and see things in a new angle, never assume. To show this he gives a real life situation of you. You are a busy person working an everyday job yet must take even more time out of your packed schedule to stop at the grocery store. That during this you only pay attention to what is troubling you; how frustrating it is to stop at the store, your tiredness etc. But never show the slightest bit of consideration for the people around you and how they react. That here is more to think about then what affects you. The author is using his voice and style through stories to get his intent across. David Wallace Foster achieved success because his stories are metaphors for life; It appealed to a wide range of people for its wisdom and knowledge. To get the readers to understand what is means to be educated how to …show more content…
The author states its intent in the very first paragraphwhich is by saying we require social interaction with other people, and cleverly uses the rest of the article backing that paragraph up.To show why it is torture, Gawande uses a scientific study on monkeys as evidence. The experiment procedure involves putting monkeys in total isolation from birth then rehabilitating them into a group of ordinary monkeys after twelve months. This results in the isolated monkeys going into a state of emotional shock and one of the six even dying. “Twelve months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially” Says Harlow, one of the researchers. This study is then compared to neglected children, psychologist came to the conclusion the brain needs to be social for it to function. Gawande writes parts of this article using evidence (like research) followed up by personal experiences to show how the evidence applies to real life situations. Readers are shown how horrible the conditions were, and the mindset of the people living through them. The author writes about these people in a sympathetic way, by showing they are normal people too. That the prisoners did have family they cared about, or how they never fully recovered from the solitary confinement. Hellhole by Atul Gawande became such a success because it not only describes, but show why solitary