Charles Baxter’s The Disappeared offers a deep insight on literary analysis.
Going through his diction, the line that stands out most is “What he first noticed about Detroit and therefore America was the smell” (109). Smell can be pleasant, acrid or outright unpleasant. This word is used in the paragraph to depict the characteristics of the seasons, and contrast the season in the nation to that back in Sweden, for the visitor.Smell is personified as having residence in the visitor’s head, an illustration of just how strong and far-reaching it was.
The word in this case is different from its synonyms; rather they are verbs or nouns due to its usage through the text. For example, the use of the word aroma or fragrance may not fully fit the meaning and message communicated; neither will the words such as scent and odor.It is a particularly interesting word ince it is used flexibly to mean different things throughout the text, from its actual meaning to illustrating someone’s place of origin. As a part of the work, it is used to show how one can survive even in the most acrid of smell, or simply, the most adverse environments.
In the second piece entitled as An Adventure in Paris, the first line “Is there any feeling in a woman stronger than curiosity? The word ‘curiosity’ is particularly important since it ncompasses all the adventures and the ‘romantic dreams’ that the woman in question has. It particularly emphasizes on the break from boredom that is housewifery, which the woman really anticipates by visiting Paris. The word is unique since it encompasses not only one meaning, but three different meanings in the paragraph. It is used in the piece to depict all the efforts that the woman makes so as to experience this adventure, which as she later realizes, is futile.
