2Analytical Tools (“The Big 5”)
Text
Audience and Purpose
Who wrote the text?
Who was it written for?
Why did the writer write it?
Content and Theme
What is the text about?
Tone and Mood
What is the writer’s tone?
How does the text make the
reader feel?
-In my opinion, Lahiri writes to express herself rather than writing to a certain group of people. She approaches literature
like an artist, she has her own perspectives and expresses her thoughts through her stories and essays. Being bilingual and
a part of two different ethnicities forms Lahiri’s identity and plays an important role in how she writes and what she
writes about. Despite, this essay being more of a piece of self-expression, I believe many can relate to her work. It is
about finding identity, as identity is a complex matter that is not formed overnight, it takes multiple experiences and
cultural influences to gain some sort of understanding regarding one’s self.
-Reflective Essay, Opiniated Essay
-purpose may be to defend of her work and choice to write in Italian
-General audience: published in the New Yorker, more highly educated people who are interested in culture, literature
and the arts.
-Lahiri explores the characteristic of language through allowing her readers to follow her journey in learning a totally
new language and explaining her discoveries in doing so. The essay explains the connection an individual has in
language, and how language is so much more than words being learnt, it is the ability to connect and express one’s self.
Furthermore, as she explains her exploration in learning Italian, she conveys how similar to her identity, she does not
come from one specific language however multiple. Her writings and understanding of literature and language is based
upon her different experiences in her culture and surroundings. With this in mind, Lahiri comes from two cultural
background and in her writings, she continues to learn a new language from a different culture. She realizes the change
that is present in learning a new language, and how much freedom she has found in this language that ironically limits
her in expressing herself.
-identity is discovered not given or born to (exploration of identity in literature)
-love for Metamorphoses
-Lahiri’s attitude towards the text is filled with curiosity, she writes the journey she faced and what she has discovered
through it, and one could tell how she writes with honesty and passion. This authenticity is also seen from writing in a
semi-formal tone, by doing this, readers are able to read more fluently and feel the honest opinions Lahiri have poured
out from her mind to the essay. In addition, a first-person perspective also created a much more personal tone. Rxeaders
are able to see a new perspective which makes them too, curious and question their own understanding of language and
its significance to their identity. The whole writing is filled with new discoveries and perspective. When reading, readers
are reflective upon their idea of language and identity.
Stylistic devices Allusion: Lahiri alluded to “The Metamorphoses of Ovid” poem, comparing the idea of being undefined and of having,
What stylistic devices does the “a dual identity” to her identity in writing Italian from when she wrote in English. This became a significant element near
writer use? the end of her essay in which she constantly refers back to this poem, being her favorite piece of writing.

Diction: When describing English and what the language meant to Lahiri, she used descriptions and comparisons that
were stated in a negative connotation which helped readers truly see her honest opinions on the language that made her
successful in the beginning. “English has represented a consuming struggle, a wrenching conflict, a continuous sense of
failure that is the source of almost all my anxiety (Lahiri)”, the words chosen were harsh and truly afflicted a low point in
Lahiri’s journey which will soon be contrasted in the next paragraph where ironically, she mentioned how she was, “in
love with it”. She then continues to compare how writing in Italian acted like an escape from her failures and successes in
English, where an opposite way of using diction showed readers how different it was writing in English to Italian, “As a
writer I can demolish myself, I can reconstruct myself (Lahiri)”. The use of contrasting diction between the two
paragraphs and descriptions created a clear difference between Lahiri’s feelings towards the two languages, further
helping readers understand the content of the text more.

Rhethorical Question: “Why am I fleeing? What is pursuing me? Who wants to restrain me?” These questions helped
explain to readers what was occurring in Lahiri’s head, which further adds to the authenticity of the piece in creating an
emotional bond with readers.

Metaphor: Lahiri compares writing in the Italian language to a flight, an escape. An escape from her comfortable ways of
writing in English. It was something free to her however, also something that she felt confined in.

Simile: “A new language, Italian, covers me like a kind of bark. I remain inside: renewed, trapped, relieved”

Lahiri’s comparisons done through the use of metaphor and similes were crucial in allowing readers to understand the
struggles she faced both in the English and Italian languages.

Repetition: Sentence structures, used adjectives next to each other, “undefined, ambiguous (Lahiri 4)”.

Juxtaposition: “violent and regenerative”

Structure This text is an article published by the New York Times. The text includes a title, subheading, an image, and a headline.
What kind of text is it? The title, “Exile” is significant as it enables readers to get a glimpse regarding the text’s content. Followed by the
What structural conventions are headline, “For a writer, a foreign language is a new kind of adventure”, it helps support the title in giving a clear and bold
used? image of the article’s content. Moreover, an image of Lahiri is presented in the first page to illustrate a picture that will
be continuously referred to in the reader’s mind as they read the text. This will help them connect Lahiri’s personality in
the text to her portrait which is helpful in creating a much more visual approach in understanding the content. The
structure of the article is divided into three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. Likewise, the article opens up with
Lahiri’s background, and defined what it meant to be an exile of the English and Bengali language. The body part of the
article describes more of her journey in learning the Italian language, and she concluded by explaining her growth as a
writer through finally settling in the Italian language. The article utilized emotive language, which is used to form an
emotional response when reading the piece, which is exactly what is done through the stylistic devices used in the text.