Literary Analysis Of A Life In Letters By John Steinbeck

An author’s purpose is an important thing in writing and many things contribute to finding out what that purpose is. In, “Travels with Charley,” by John Steinbeck, “A Life in Letters,” by John Steinbeck, and “An American Dream,” by Martin Luther King Jr., the authors use many different elements to get their purpose across. Some are trying to entertain, while others are trying to inform and persuade. No matter what the purpose though, they are all using similar techniques to get it across. In the three short stories, literary elements play a big role in determining the purpose of each piece. In, “A Life in Letters,” by Steinbeck, he uses many similes and metaphors when comparing his travels to things, as well as even comparing his wife to a …show more content…
In “An American Dream,” King uses very strong word choice that moves many people. This is a good thing because his goal is to persuade people to believe the way he does. An example of his word choice would be, “Very seldom if ever in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profoundly eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality” (King 173). He uses strong vocabulary and words that have a deeper meaning than just, you need to believe this way because it is cool. In “Travels With Charley,” Steinbeck uses a very descriptive word choice when explaining the views he has on the places he visits, but does not use that throughout the entire story. However, in “A Life in Letters,” Steinbeck uses almost no strong word choice other than a few descriptive words in a few of the letters. He is not trying to persuade or really describe very much as his goal in writing was to tell his wife about his …show more content…
In, “A Life in Letters,” Steinbeck uses short fragment sentences while writing to his wife. He is not trying to write a very formal paper so he does not need to use long drawn out sentences with an exceptional amount of description. Steinbeck’s other piece, “Travels With Charley,” does use full sentences though. His goal in this piece is to inform and entertain so he needs to have a longer descriptive sentence when writing to a different audience. As for “An American Dream,” Dr. King uses full sentences that get his point across with even some run-on sentences occasionally. His goal is to persuade everyone to his belief that everyone is equal, so he would need to use as many words and as many ways to say his opinion to benefit himself and his purpose while writing. King shows this goal when he states, “One of the first things we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism,” on page