Summary Of Christopher Morley On Laziness

Laziness is a term that has long been used to describe people. Typically, laziness is used when people do not do what they are supposed to and tends to lead to a negative view of said person. However, in his article, “On Laziness”, Christopher Morley utilizes sentence structure and word choice to persuade people of the importance of laziness. Morley incorporated sentence structure to change the reader’s negative view of laziness. He began with longer sentences followed by shorter ones. This allowed Morley to set up his topic (laziness) and explain the background behind his ideas. As he wrote he placed longer sentences next to shorter ones, which summarized his point. For example, “The man who is really, thoroughly, and philosophically slothful …show more content…
To start off his essay, Morley pairs the word ‘indolence’, an uncommon substitute for laziness, with the words ‘appreciation’ and ‘benign.’ ‘Appreciation’ makes readers think of people doing kind things for others, which in turn leads to people being appreciative. ‘Benign’ makes readers think curable and good. Therefore, by pairing both ‘appreciative’ and ‘benign’ with ‘indolence’, Morley causes his readers to think more positively when hearing the word ‘indolence’ then they would with the word ‘lazy.’ He does this again when he uses the words ‘philosophically’ and ‘thoroughly happy’ with the word ‘slothful’. He substitutes the word lazy, with the word ‘slothful’ which leads people to think of sloths. The negative connotation of lazy is nowhere to be found behind the word slothful. The word ‘philosophically’ makes readers think education and smart. This paired with slothful allows for the idea that laziness can be good to creep into readers minds. Laziness is educational, and even smart. Pair that with ‘thoroughly happy’ and now Morley has convinced his readers that laziness is educational and smart and can lead to someone being completely and utterly happy. His point, that laziness can be good, is setup to be explained, because Morley has removed the negative connotation behind