Question

In at least 100 words, discuss how word choice and structure affect the tone of Daly's "Sixteen."

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

The theme of Maureen Daly’s story Sixteen is young romance and the acceptance of disappointments.

In the first part, the narrator tries to tell the reader that she is not dull. To prove this, the author lists many things the girl knows – theatre facts, things about New York, celebrity news, clothes... By choosing to explain this, Daly gives the story the feeling of the young girl who wants to be seen as someone who understands life.

By continuing to describe the setting and the atmosphere, the tone shifts to the wintery and charming, trying to paint the enthusiasm of the girl. She describes the snow, the evening, and "the delicious smell from the iron stove", making the reader experience the magic of the winter night and the happiness narrator feels. Using the metaphor about having stars in the eyes, Daly’s tone suggests to us the thrill of the young person.

As the narrator tells she “can't even remember if we talked at all“ when talking about the boy, she wants to paint us how giddy and love-struck she was – she only saw him and remembers the feeling, but not the events. With this, we can realize how in love she was at the time. Choosing to focus later on the description of the stars and the moon, Daly sets us in the perfect romantic setting, using the symbols of love.

Yet, the tone changes at the end. Daly describes the everyday common things narrator did (homework, listening to the radio, crosswords) which prove to drastically different and mundane compared to previous enchantment descriptions of the night. She describes the quietness and stillness to paint us the loneliness and disappointment the narrator felt. By repeating the word never for a few times at the very end, Daly finally sets the end to the story and emphasizes the acceptance of the salty disappointment.