Style in Thurber’s My Life and Hard Times (Ch 5-9)

Richard Brutski, Kate Burt, Kaya Curtis, and Uma Desai

Thesis

Through the use of rhetorical and comedic devices in My Life and Hard Times, Thurber establishes an engaging and humorous writing style in order to relate to the reader and highlight the importance of laughing at the stress and chaos that surrounds everyday life.

Chapter 5: More Alarms at Night● Entire novel written in first person point of view● General tone of chapter: mocking, making fun of father● Notable rhetorical devices used:

○ Anaphora■ Thus: "ate some burnt hoss flesh, ate some burnt

hoss flesh, ate some burn hoss flesh." (41)○ Hyperbole

■ “on the day in question I thought of every town in the country” (43)

More Alarms at Night (Con’t)o Connotation

Italics and quotes change the meanings of words/phrases● “Now, what?” demanded my mother (45)● “Nevertheless, he had warned father when father went

to bed, that he might become delirious.” (41)● “About three o'clock in the morning, Roy, who was

wake-ful, decided to pretend that delirium was on him, in order to have, as he later explained it, some "fun."” (41)

More Alarms at Night (con’t)● Comedic Devices:

o Practical Comedy “He got out of bed and, going to my father’s room,

shook him and said, ‘Buck, your time has come!’” (41)o Irony

“My mother declared that it was ‘a sin and a shame’ for a grown man to wake up a sick boy” (42)

Chapter 6: A Sequence of Servants● Syntax

o Thurber uses a variety of sentence lengthso Creates a flow that makes the novel easy for people

to reado Really long sentences mimic stories told out loud

This is Thurber’s way of connecting to the reader and relating to them because while reading, it seems as if your very excitable friend is telling you a long-winded story

A Sequence of Servants (con’t)For example:“Nor were her fears unfounded, for she was so extremely susceptible to hypnotic suggestion that one evening at B. F. Keith's theatre when a man on the stage was hypnotized, Juanemma, in the audience, was hypnotized too and floundered out into the aisle making the same cheeping sound that the subject on the stage, who had been told he was a chicken, was making. The act was abandoned and some xylophone players were brought on to restore order.” (47)

A Sequence of Servants (con’t)● Rhetorical devices

o Caesura– contributes to the rhythm and style● “...for otherwise Mr. Barrymore might have had to

dress up again as Rasputin...and journey across the country to get her out of it–excellence publicity but a great brother.” (49)

A Sequence of Servants (con’t)

● Colloquial language in dialogueo Adds humor, for it is in a way burlesque humor because

it makes fun of the way people talko Makes the novel more relatableo “‘Dey is a death watch downstaihs!’ rumbled the old

negro lady.” (52)

● This is an example of how the author’s style/flair engages the audience and encourages them to laugh at the stress and chaos that surrounds everyday life

(screenshots from PDF of book)

Chapter 7: The Dog That Bit People● Informal, narrative, and humorous tone● Usage of comedic devices:

o Anecdote “Then, too, there was the prize winning French

poodle…” (Thurber 54)o Practical comedy

“So we fixed up a thunder machine…”(62)o Caricature (through use of personification)

“Muggs wavered on past him into the hallway grumbling to himself but the Fuller man went on shouting” (62)

The Dog That Bit People (con’t)● Rhetorical devices:

o Alliteration “Great growling and scratching of claws” (60)

o Personification “Mother said, ‘Muggs could read him like a book’” (56) “Muggs wavered on past him into the hallway

grumbling to himself” (62)o Simile

“Muggs came wandering into the room like Hamlet following his father’s ghost” (62)

The Dog That Bit People (con’t)● Syntax

o Altering sentence lengths contribute to the “storytelling”

● Structureo Lengthy paragraphso Digressions (Beginning,

progression of the text)● Drawings contribute to lighthearted

and humorous stylehttp://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/thurberj-mylifeandhardtimes/thurberj-mylifeandhardtimes-00-h-dir/images/105_illo.jpg

Chapter 8: University Days● humorous, lighthearted tone● informal style of writing, easy to follow● chapter separated into four anecdotal stories● use of italics to express frustration or sarcasm➢ “claiming that I could too see through a microscope but just

pretended I couldn’t”● use of alliteration to add to lighthearted tone and emphasize

mockery of authoritative figures➢ “The professor had come back from vacation brown as a

berry, bright-eyed, and eager” (65)

Chapter 8: University Days● use of hyperbole, simile, and theriomorphism,

to further develop humorous tone and highlight the immaturity of the botany professor

➢ “We’ll try it with every adjustment of the microscope known to man. As God is my witness, I’ll arrange this glass so that you see cells through it or I’ll give up teaching” (65)

➢ “he was beginning to quiver all over like Lionel Barrymore” (66)

➢ “hunt for each letter on the typewriter” (70) http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/01/thurber-tonight-my-life-and-hard-times_11.html

University Days (con’t)● uses comedic devices commonly, such as the

Freudian slip, to keep lighthearted, fun tone○ Mr. Bassum abruptly broke this silence in an

amazing manner. “Choo-choo-choo,” he said, in a low voice, and turned instantly scarlet.

● banter between professor and Thurber● slapstick comedy

○ “I bumped into professors, horizontal bars, agricultural students, and swinging iron rings” (68)

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/01/thurber-tonight-my-life-and-hard-times_11.html

Chapter 9: Draft Board Nights

● Tone: humorous, lighthearted, mocking themselves/otherso Created by anecdotes about Grandpa and the runabout

and his own mistakes as well as others’.● Narrative:telling stories in the form of anecdotes for the

purpose of comedy. ➣ As if speaking to the reader:

○ “But to get back to the war...” (78) ○ “It seemed fair enough.” (76)

Draft Board Nights (cont.)● Use of Rhetorical devices:

● Chiasmus: Used to as a twist to the end of an anecdote.o "He watched while I slept, so now I'm watchin' while

he sleeps."(76)● Onomatopoeia: Used to engage audience and give a

feel of what was going on.

○ “we had begun to climb, clickety-clockety, up the first steep incline” (83)

Draft Board Nights (cont.)● Rhetorical devices (cont.)

o Uses flashback to tell story of Grandpa and the electric runabout

o Metaphor: compares runabout to a wild colt (76)● Use of Comedic elements: contribute to humorous tone. -Anecdote: “Some years before, he had dynamited the men's lounge in the statehouse...” (82) -Slapstick: “drove over the curb, across the sidewalk, and up onto the lawn.” (76)

Works Cited● Thurber, James. My Life and Hard times. New York: Harper &

Bros., 1933. PDF.● http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/thurberj-mylifeandhardtimes

/thurberj-mylifeandhardtimes-00-h-dir/images/105_illo.jp● http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/01/thurber-tonight-

my-life-and-hard-times_11.html