Friday Night Lights Essays - Limerick, Angelas Ashes, Frank McCourt

Linguistic expression is commonly manipulated by various authors, seeing as it is comprehended that proper skill in such an area improves the effectiveness of argumentation and prose. There is only a limited amount of devices that exist though. Could it be presumed that all author's who rely on it then will end up having similar results if they employ the same ? No, it does not. Frank McCourt, in his memoir, Angela's Ashes, comes to terms with his miserably irish-catholic childhood. McCourt achieves this by recalling a series of particular events from his life that include a variety of both lighthearted and depressing accounts in a manner that takes advantage of literary elements. The author's purpose is to display his stream of conscious in order to demonstrate that his very character was shaped through the miserable events he often was forced to endure. H. G. Bissinger, in his spectative account of Permian High's football team, Friday Night Lights, reveals what he witnessed as he s pent a year in Odessa, Texas an economically and socially troubled town that relies on football to escape the woes of everyday life. Bissinger effectively illustrates the extent of the town's reliance on football by simply reporting on the events that took place and manipulating literary devices to reveal them. The author's purpose is to expose the determination and commitment of the football players who come together as a team. McCourt writes in a gullible cherubic tone while Bissinger writes in a quick paced informal tone, both have a similar wide ranged audience. Though both Angela's Ashes and Friday Night Lights tend to rely on the same literary elements to achieve a certain effect, the emotions provoked and stimulated were remarkably different. Rather than this being the result of each book being centered around different situations, the result is due to literary elements of the same nature being able to shift purpose depending on how they are employed. Angela's Ashes and Frida y Night Light' Both authors demonstrate a fluctuating syntactical pattern. The syntax alters much too often to attach one particular configuration to them. Through the constantly changing sentence structures, a distinct colloquialism is revealed. "Upsy daisy, little Paddy, upsy daisy, up in the air in the dark , so dark, oh, jasus, you miss the child on the way down and poor little Patrick lands on his head, gurgles a bit, whimpers, then goes quiet. (AA 13) Angela's Ashes supports an 'Irish' colloquialism. McCourt also tends to reveal more of the Irish culture by often inserting references to legends of 'Cuchulain', which he learned from his father, and common Irish songs sung by his mother or other characters in the memoir. In Friday night Lights, Bissinger, on the other hand, reveals a Texan dialect through his characters. "What do you think?" he said, motioning to the crowd, to the stadium, to the starry beauty of it all. "You ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait till Midland Lee."(FNL 85) Bissinger is not Texan, as his characters were, while McCourt shares the same background with his characters. This is made evident throughout each story because McCourt often makes his allusions or metaphors refer to his Irish culture and upbringing. Bissinger on the other hand only reflects small town Texan culture through the speech patterns of his characters or whenever he describes a setting. Otherwise it is not included in his writing style. Point of view is another aspect that both author's rely on, yet use differently. In Angela's Ashes, McCourt writes including himself as a character in the memoir. "I wish I had something to eat but there's nothing in the icebox but cabbage leaves floating in the melted ice. My father said never to eat anything floating in water for the rot that might be in it."(AA 20) Bissinger writes acting as a narrator who is not part of the story. "Welcome guys" were the words coach Gary Gaines used to begin the 1988 season, and fifty five boys dressed in identical grey shirts and grey shorts, sitting on identical benches, stared into his eyes."(FNL 23) Frank McCourt declares the details of a situation, yet allows the audience to interpret the situation as they wish. H.G. Bissinger also grants