The purpose of the excerpt from Bill Bryson’s Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe is trying to convey the idea to Americans(and others) that Europe is very different from America in its scenery and the way the people are, all the while keeping a humorous tone. He uses techniques such as epithet, anaphora, and, parallelism. Alongside these devices, he also uses levity so as not to bore the readers
Epithet, using an adjective(s) to describe something, is present throughout the first paragraph. He uses it when describing his first walk through Luxembourg in attempt to draw the reader in, using descriptions so the reader can visualize what’s going on with little difficulty. The sentence stating, “... the ancient streets of Luxembourg city in a kind of vivid haze--an unfamiliar mixture of excitement and exhaustion and intense optical stimulation.” is a perfect example of Bryson’s use of epithet. …show more content…
He does this quite a bit in the second paragraph, using the terms: “Never seen…” and “They don’t know…”. He’s using this as way to emphasize how different people from Luxembourg are, compared to Americans. I think the best example to show this point is when he says, “They don't know anything about the New York Yankees, they don't know the theme tune to the Mickey Mouse Club, they are from another world.” The part of the sentence about Mickey Mouse Club could also be an example of his use of levity. He also uses levity at the beginning of the second paragraph when he refers to people who wear berets. I believe Bryson uses this humorous tone as way to keep the reader engaged in his writing because people respond well to jokes(most of the
Epithet, using an adjective(s) to describe something, is present throughout the first paragraph. He uses it when describing his first walk through Luxembourg in attempt to draw the reader in, using descriptions so the reader can visualize what’s going on with little difficulty. The sentence stating, “... the ancient streets of Luxembourg city in a kind of vivid haze--an unfamiliar mixture of excitement and exhaustion and intense optical stimulation.” is a perfect example of Bryson’s use of epithet. …show more content…
He does this quite a bit in the second paragraph, using the terms: “Never seen…” and “They don’t know…”. He’s using this as way to emphasize how different people from Luxembourg are, compared to Americans. I think the best example to show this point is when he says, “They don't know anything about the New York Yankees, they don't know the theme tune to the Mickey Mouse Club, they are from another world.” The part of the sentence about Mickey Mouse Club could also be an example of his use of levity. He also uses levity at the beginning of the second paragraph when he refers to people who wear berets. I believe Bryson uses this humorous tone as way to keep the reader engaged in his writing because people respond well to jokes(most of the