Compare and Contrast Essay: Everyday Use by Alice Walker and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Marquez

Every story has a varying style applied to convey a lesson or idea; the author typically chooses these lessons based on problems with our society they see. They have learned these lessons in their life experiences and are often morals they want to help people understand. Everyday Use by Alice Walker, and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Marquez, are very similar in style, tone, and devices used to convey these ideas or lessons. They are also incredibly different in these same regards, especially in their uses of rhetorical devices.

Rhetorical devices express many fluctuating emotions and feelings throughout the telling of a story to make the presented argument stronger or appear firmer. In Everyday Use, Walker uses a surprising amount of more complex rhetorical devices for the type of story she wrote. Walker uses several examples of devices such as asyndeton, tricolon, anaphora, hypophora, and metaphors. An example of asyndeton is the quote, “…forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two”. This example creates the feeling of a closed-loop. That loop makes the reader feel more following; it makes them feel that the list has more. For the story, it leads the reader to believe that Dee, who at this time calls herself Wangero for her ancestral culture, is detached from her family entirely. Earlier on, Walker uses a rhetorical device known as hypophora.

Hypophora is when the author asks a question, then immediately answers it using the same character who is asking the question. An example of this in the story is when the mother asks when her last house burned down, scarring her little girl, Maggie. The quote is as follows: “How long ago was it that the other house burned? Ten, twelve years?” Walker asks two questions; the purpose of the second question is also to answer the first. Hypophora serves to catch a reader’s attention because questions stimulate the human brain. It is also to ask a question the reader may not have thought of, inspiring a new line of thought or providing more information. Aside from asyndeton and tricolon, Walker also uses anaphora. Anaphora is the repetition of keywords at the beginning of sentences or phrases, emphasizing a point of reminding the reader of who the subject is. Walker applies it throughout the story, and she uses it to emphasize whom she is speaking about, varying from case to case. In regards to rhetorical devices, the final example is the use of metaphors. A metaphor compares two people, objects, or ideas without using words such as “like” or “as.” Aside from rhetorical devices, Walker uses harsh syntax to show the disconnect between the family. The words and phrases are aimed at Dee, from her family, or vice versa. She uses phrases such as “She’d probably be backward enough to….” (477) and “…like dimwits, we seemed to understand.” These examples go to show that the relationship between Dee and her family could be incredibly hostile. These are just a few examples. Walker’s focus is on creating a realistic scenario for her audience to learn from instead of magical realism. 

Magical realism is a difficult concept to grasp in a story at times; the idea of these fantastical creatures and stories is complex for more realistic people to grasp when it comes to a story. Magical realism adds ideas that expand the understanding of a story through a comprehensive understanding of the social structure and where this magical realism comes to play in day-to-day life. This is made clear through many of Gabriel Marquez’s stories, such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. In terms of rhetorical devices, Marquez uses metaphors heavily. There is little focus on more complex rhetorical devices such as polysyndeton, anaphora, and hypophora. An example of metaphor use is the following quote, where the older man is compared to a flying acrobat: “…a flying acrobat who buzzed over the crowd several times, but no one paid any attention to him because his wings were not were not those of an angel but, rather, those of a sidereal rat.” Aside from the metaphor used, many examples of harsh language are used to describe the older man. Despite the common belief that he was an angel, the words used by the narrator happened to be incredibly degrading to him. Examples of the phrases used about the man are: “Frightened by that nightmare.” and “…ragpicker.” (144). Some of the other syntaxes used when speaking on what to do with the older man included: “They did not have the heart to club him to death.” (144). The man was being treated like an animal; he was being kept in a cage, having food thrown at him, and doing nothing more than simply living at the lowest level of life. This is far different from the other “atrocities,” such as the woman who was turned into a spider. When talking about the spider-woman, there was a more sympathetic tone in writing. It was almost like the fact that they knew the woman’s origins made her less of an atrocity, and she could relate more with the people who found the older man so fascinating. Furthermore, the metaphors and syntax are similar to the story Everyday Use. 

Drastically different writing styles can easily be compared when a story is broken down into its components and analyzed. There is always a similar or shared aspect between varying writing styles, and there is no better example than the difference between Everyday Use and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. In terms of rhetorical devices and strategies, both stories made effective use of metaphors and similes. Although, Everyday Use used far more complex devices in its writing aside from metaphor. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings focuses more on comparisons than applying effective writing designed to convey feelings or ideas. This is where the difference lies in terms of rhetoric. In terms of realism, there were no similarities. Everyday use maintained a realistic story, while A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings applied magical realism throughout. These both had different effects on the reader. Magical realism is designed to try and make a point about reality using unrealistic ideas of concepts. Sometimes it will make the reader question what is real, and it will often open up avenues of reality the reader may not have thought to be possible before introducing the concept. Realism keeps the story centered around what the reader knows to be accurate and aims to make it easily comprehendible. It limits the creativity of the reader to keep them on track with the story.  Beyond realism and magical realism, the syntax was very similar between both stories. Walker and Marquez both decided to use harsh syntax to make specific characters in their stories feel belittled or demeaned. In both circumstances, they were used to teach a lesson to the reader. 

To conclude, both essays made effective use of rhetorical devices and strategies. In both instances, the metaphor was used effectively and allowed for an adequate comparison that helped the reader understand what was being said. Both stories had their differences regarding realism, but both of these stories successfully conveyed the ideas that they were attempting to. These examples of realism and magical realism make for effective comparison and can help show the difference in thought and concept between the two. In terms of syntax, both of these stories had a significant focus on unforgiving, harsh syntax that put the characters’ feelings about certain subjects into perspective for the reader. Overall, these stories have much to compare and differentiate, and they ultimately did the job they were trying to do effectively.