Horizontal World Analysis

“A small town is a place where there’s no place to go where you shouldn’t. (Bacharach).” Small towns have a character and has history greater than credited. Debra Marquart illustrated the history of her small town. Throughout the passage described in first person narrative by Debra, herself, explained her story of what she has seen and been told. In “Horizontal World” author Debra Marquart applies vivid imagery, unique diction, and a personal anecdote to convey the importance and uniqueness of small towns. First, Debra Marquart uses vivid imagery to emphasize the small details that make a town unique. Debra opened the passage with a descriptive view you can only see in the country side in order to pull in the readers and allow them to feel
Marquart portrays unique diction to create a relatable situation. Debra repeatedly utilizes the word “this” in order to throw emphasize on the overall idea she wants addressed. Debra profoundly stated, “This is a region that contains both Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon (“where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average”).” The author is talking primarily about small towns and their importance to our world, by utilizing the word “this” constantly she is giving a personal importance onto the topic. With the use of simple yet descriptive words she had the ability to connect with all readers, throughout the passage she refrained from using large and lesser known words in order to make the passage more easily read for readers. Debra declared, “Soon enough, as the surveying expedition moved west, the neatness of the grid was foiled by steep valleys, rivers, foothills, and mountains.” The whole purpose was to create a passage that explained to the readers the importance and uniqueness of a small town, by using smaller and easily more understandable words she better connects with the readers understandings and conveys her purpose clearly without a lot of misinterpretation. Diction was an important technique to the passage because it allowed her to more easily connect with the readers and assure she was conveying the message that she intended
Bringing in the story of her grandparents arriving to the area she ties in the reader by giving fully set real world examples. She began, “Such is the situation all of my great-grandparents and grandparents encountered when they arrived between the years of 1885 and 1911.” By utilizing this not only does she give a final point to the importance of small towns but she shows herself as credible to the position she is standing in by giving a first hand situation. Continuing to use anecdotes and quotes she explains Richard Manning’s observation of the grassland in which immigrants came to establish as a small community. Debra quoted Manning, “The place was a mess, and it became a young nation’s job to fix it with geometry, democracy, seeds, steam, steel, and water.” She is using this example in a way of saying “there is not much to us but together we create the most unique and purposeful. way of life. Stories and famous quotes give more of a higher view on the passage due to utilizing known factors to the situation, along with she used her families stories of small towns to show importance of the idea to herself. In “Horizontal World” author Debra Marquart applies vivid imagery, unique diction, and a personal anecdote to convey the importance and uniqueness of small towns. All in all, the rhetorical devices help make the text powerful by conveying a personal message to the reader that includes strong imaging, precise