Grammatical Style in Lumpkin’s The Making of a Southerner :: Lumpkin Making Southerner

Effective Use of Grammatical Style in Lumpkins The Making of a SouthernerKatharine Du Pre Lumpkin has many effective uses of grammatical style. In the introductory full paragraph on page 86 of The Making of a Southerner this is evidenced. She begins the sentence with an adverbial which ties this paragraph to the previous one. Lumpkin uses the quotation stir up the Negroes to cause the proofreader to feel like he/she is present during this cartridge holder period. The quotation draws the reader into the paragraph because of its status as a kickoff-hand account, which lends credibility to the argument being presented. Later in the first sentence Lumpkin uses a dash as a sentence interrupter. This pause places much speech pattern on the phrase later on the dash, causing the reader to give it more(prenominal) weight. Indeed, this phrase is the focus of the entire paragraph, and Lumpkin has adroitly set it apart.Following the first sentence, Lumpkin uses questions to enhance the f eeling of there-ness. In other words, Lumpkin presents the material in an disputatious fashion in order to draw the reader further into the mentality of the gabardine male of whom she speaks. Lumpkin uses her position as narrator to step choke and give someone else a voice. She argues as though she herself were a white male in the late 1800s to early 1900s. This The quotes continue to support her litigious style by giving examples of the names and rumors floating during this time nowadays past. On and on Lumpkin extorts the reader to feel what it is like to be a scared white male after the Civil War. Question after question repetitively persuade the reader to vividly imagine the sottish Negroes . . . burning d cause plantation homes as well as the arm recruits, former slaves roaming the countryside demanding of white men to get their vehicles off the road to harbour room for these uniformed freedmen (86). The imagery skillfully hidden in the questionnaire is astounding.Then , of a sudden, a dash appears to bring the reader full circle. We are now aware again that the narrator is asserting a voice of her own with the small apposition the rumor said so (86). This phrase gives the reader the sense that Lumpkin now disagrees with this attitude once held by her father. It belies the view that Lumpkin is simply trying to hide for an unbiased second-hand account of the period.