Hiroshima Chapter 2 Passage Analysis

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Timing almost always affects the style of a passage. As in the two passages Hiroshima and Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor, the timing shows how great of an impact it can have on the style of a passage. Both passages talk of the same event, the bombing of Hiroshima, yet the time of which they occurred differed. Choice of detail is one key element in the timing of the two passages. John Hersey tells how “granite gravestones three hundred and eighty yards from the center” (5) were fused and completely destroyed. This detail makes the style of this time show that he was on the scene. He also had a first-hand account of what went on with the bombing of Hiroshima. In D.J. Enright’s passage, he states that “tiles melted out of shape and a few fried shoes were dumped on a trestle table” (4). Enright, ten years after the bombing of Hiroshima, visits a museum about this topic. The choice of detail he includes in his writing shows the…show more content…
Hersey witnessed that “scientists swarmed into the city” (1). His perspective was on the exact scene of an investigation soon after the attack in the nearly exact spot the uranium bomb hit Hiroshima. This puts a style of first-hand account on the passage. However, the perspective of the passage Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor changes, making it different from the passage Hiroshima. With this change came a shift in timing and style. Enright tells his story of how he visited a museum and that “it was a smallish building” (1). He gives many different views of how the museum looked and what was included in all of the smaller exhibits. This perspective helps the reader to see that Enright viewed the exhibits of Hiroshima at a later date, maybe some years later. Here, the timing changes the style, just as it did in Hersey’s passage. However, Enright was an onlooker or tourist in a museum that happened to cover the bombing of

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