The Use of Quotations and the Art of Sarcasm

The use of quotations is just a simple part of reading that often times, people do not think twice about. Underlying this neglected art of the use of quotation marks is just as mysterious as it is complex. Take the sentence for example: John did his homework. With a simple addition of quotation marks around the verb causes the entire sentence almost change in meaning: John "did" his homework. This becomes an art to some extent, letting an author portray a false positive in a sense. Placement is key, never following a certain formula, equation, or outline. The quotation mark is a very intricate part of literature.Why would the author intend to do such a thing?

The root of using can be traced into an area of speech, a more learned type of language often misjudged and ignored, called sarcasm. Now why do humans use sarcasm? From a more psychological stand point sarcasm can be very beneficial. Sarcasm can be achieved by the use of an infliction or exaggeration of speech can be used to say one thing but mean the opposite. This causes the speaker to say, for various reasons, something that a listener would want to hear without actually meaning the connotation, almost in fact meaning the complete reverse. This can be a way to express thoughts or opinions without the punishment or recoil that follow the statement. Put into different words, it is a way to shroud or hide our true feelings. The use of quotations is similar, and used in part with presenting sarcasm through text, to sarcasm because it allows the author to share this infliction in the voice to display a different meaning.

The Snowball Effect and the Beauty of Destruction

The Snowball Effect and the Beauty of Destruction

Written by: Clayton

In class this week, as one of our homework assignments required us to read a story called The Destructors written by Graham Greene. This short story involves a "gang", rather a group of like-minded, prepubescent boys after World War II. When reading through this story a so called "effect" or chain reaction was taking place in the plot. The gang started my planning on a seemingly innocent game of "stealing" bus rides, but eventually end up destroying a two century old house that survived the impalement of bombs from World War II. Between these two almost opposite spectrum actions a special type of reaction took place: The Snowball Effect.

The Snowball Effect, as explained in the best of my abilities, is a process that increases it's mass or 

importance at an almost exponential rate i.e The objects growth is exponentially proportionally to its speed. In other words, as it picks up speed, it grows at a ever increasing rate. This can be examined by how the gang can make such large jumps in activity. First it starts out as getting free bus rides, to demolishing a house from the inside thus passing the point of no return, to even locking the house owner in a "loo" or outhouse. This perfectly represents a chain  reaction because their innocence seems to be lost as it all rolls down the hill. As with most snowball effects the end result is almost always end with a path of self-destruction.

The beauty of destruction, can be seen in all of the universe, in every aspect. The most amazing part of destruction is that it involves creation. A fundamental law of the universe is that of the Laws of Conservation. This by far is one of the most important laws, and my personal favorite. As put in simple terms the Law of Conservation of Mass is that something cannot come from nothing. Everything that exists, has existed, and has yet to exist, is present at this moment in time; Stuck in a vicious cycle of destruction and reconstruction. In The Destuctors this law is present, even in this fictional story. When the gang destroys Mr. Thomas's house, something not physically created besides a pile of rubble, but a gang bonded by brotherhood and guilt. That is the underlying premise behind this book I have found after my second read-through. In essence destruction is an alternate form of creation, but from the opposite view point. Such as life only moves in one direction, but from a different perspective, it is yet plausible for life to go backwards. Always present and always taken for granted. The cycle of destruction and creation, life and death, and that is the beauty of the Law of Conservation.