Year 12,
Here is an extract from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Read it and use the key questions provided to make comments in the space below. By Tuesday please.
Spaghetti and Soccer in Italy—from chapter 23
Yesterday afternoon I went to the soccer game with Luca Spaghetti and his friends. We were there to watch Lazio play. There are two soccer teams in Rome—Lazio and Roma. The rivalry between the teams and their fans is immense, and can divide otherwise happy families and peaceful neighborhoods into civil war zones. It’s important that you choose early in life whether you are a Lazio fan or a Roma fan, because this will determine, to a large part, whom you hang out with every Sunday afternoon for the rest of time. Luca has a group of about ten close friends who all love each other like brothers. Except that half of them are Lazio fans and half of them are Roma fans. They can’t really help it; they were all born into families where the loyalty was already established. Luca’s grandfather (who I hope is known as Nonno Spaghetti) gave him his first sky-blue Lazio jersey when the boy was just a toddler. Luca, likewise, will be a Lazio fan until he dies.
“We can change our wives,” he said. “We can change our jobs, our rationalities and even our religions, but we can never change our team.”
By the way, the word for “fan” in Italian is tifoso. Derived from the word for typhus. In other words, one who is mightily fevered.
My first soccer game with Luca Spaghetti was, for me, a delirious banquet of Italian language. I learned all sorts of new and interesting words in that stadium which they don’t teach you in school. There was an old man sitting behind me, stringing together such a gorgeous flower-chain of curses as he screamed down at the players on the field. I don’t know all that much about soccer, but I sure didn’t waste any time asking Luca inane questions about what was going on in the game. All I kept demanding was, “Luca, what did the guy behind me just say? What does cafone mean?” And Luca never taking his eyes from the field would reply, “Asshole. It means asshole.”
I would write it down. Then shut my eyes and listen to some more of the old man’s rant, which went something like:
Dai, dai, dai, Albertini, dai va bene, va bene, ragazzo mio, perfetto, bravo, bravo Dai! Dai! Via! Via! Nellaporta!Eccola, eccola, eccola, mio bravo ragazzo, caro mio, eccola, eccola, eccoAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! VAFFANCULO!!! FIGLIODI MIGNOTTA!! STRONZO! CAFONE! TRADITORE! Madonna Ah, Dio mio, perch,perch,perch, questo stupido, una vergona, la vergogna Che casino, che bordello NON HAI UN CUORE, ALBERTINI! FAI FINTA!Guarda, non successo niente Dai, dai, ah. Molto migliore, Albertini, molto migliore, s s s, eccola, bello, bravo,anima mia, ah, ottimo, eccola adesso nella porta, nella porta, nellVAFFANCULO!!!!!!!
Oh, it was such an exquisite and lucky moment in my life to be sitting right in front of this man. I loved every word out of his mouth. I wanted to lean my head back into his old lap and let him pour his eloquent curses into my ears forever. And it wasn’t just him! The whole stadium was full of such soliloquies. At such high fervor! Whenever there was some grave miscarriage of justice on the field, the entire stadium would rise to its feet, every man waving his arms in outrage and cursing, as if all 20,000 of them had just been in a traffic altercation. The Lazio players were no less dramatic than their fans, rolling on the ground in pain like death scenes from Julius Caesar, totally playing to the back row, then jumping to their feet two seconds later to lead another attack on the goal.
Lazio lost, though.
Now: Here are the key questions - you may write your answers under the headings 1, 2, 3.... etc according to the question you are focussin on.
1. Whose voice is speaking in the extract?
2. How is the voice created?
3. What is the register of the voice in the passage?#
4. How is the reader's response controlled and directed?
5. What ist he combined impact of this on the reader?
Whose voice is speaking in the extract?
ReplyDeleteThe extract is written in first person, to me its seems like the person speaking is either a person on holiday or someone visiting the Italy to learn more about the country, its culture and its language. I think this because of quotes such as ‘a delirious banquet of Italian language.’ And ‘which they don’t teach you in school’
How is the voice created?
The persons voice is created with the use of very descriptive language such as ‘exquisite’ and ‘eloquent’ this make the person seem very intelligent. In addition with the use of descriptive language it makes the character seem very dramatic and the excessive use of descriptive language could seem like hyperbole ‘exquisite and lucky moment in my life’
What is the register of the voice in the passage?
The extract seems to be written in a very chatty way, almost like a diary. The extract it very informative telling us the facts of where and what she is doing, and she is dressing them up in descriptive language and telling to audience many of her personal opinions.
How is the reader's response controlled and directed?
The author controls the reader by using lots of descriptive language, the author gets the narrator to describe the scenes to the reader in a huge amount of detail so the reader feels like they are in the scene with the characters. In addition by the author writing the book in the register it is written in (chatty, diary like) makes the audience feel as if they are friends with the character because it is a very laid back style of writing.
What is the combined impact of this on the reader?
Overall the register make the book a lot nicer and easier to read, by the chatty tone, the effect of this is that whatever events happened to the characters our emotions would be warped the way the author wants them to be because we like the character.
By using a lot of descriptive language it interests us and it also makes us see the scene that the characters are seeing and we seen the scene the author intend so there is not ‘what if’s?’ or any tension or confusion caused.
Whose voice is speaking in the extract?
ReplyDeleteTo me the extract sounds like it is voiced by a teenager visiting Italy. I think this because of the chatty style of writing and the way the character quotes school in a way that suggest she is still in education or has recently left, “which they don’t teach you in school”
How is the voice created?
The voice is created with a lot of descriptive language and good vocabulary, this shows intelligence. Along with the chatty style the character also has it creates a good contrast.
What is the register of the voice in the passage?
The register of the passage is just like a diary entry, documenting what the character did that day and when. Also the character shows personal opinions which also adds to the diary/letter feel of the passage.
How is the reader's response controlled and directed?
The reader’s response is friendly and unchallenged; use of descriptive language puts the reader in the scene with the character and adds a lively feel to the reader’s response. Use of chatty style writing makes the reader feel close to the character which creates a false friendship which is amusing for the reader.
What is the combined impact of this on the reader?
The impact all of this has on the reader is one of happiness, we feel close to the character when we read about her reactions to the character day we relate to that because of the descriptive language used by the character. The impact of personal opinions is that the reader can relate to the experiences the character has.