AOW #19: WSJ A City Old and Buried—but Far From Dead

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203753704577257391635511380.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 

This piece was about a classics teacher’s visit to Troy to see the Roman Horse from the “Iliad”. It was basically like a story of her experience of seeing the horse for the first time after reading it since she was just a kid. She explained the details and how they matched up perfectly with the story description in her mind.

The author of this article is Madeline Miller. She is credible not only because she works for the Wall Street Journal, a very prestigious paper, but she wrote many articles on much of the same things. She had at least 5 to 6 more articles about the “Iliad” and everything that goes along with it, which shows me she must be somewhat of a “expert” o said topic. She is also a “classics” teacher who understands and teaches her students about all of the classic literature in history.

The context of this piece would be causal because she is describing what happened on her trip, which happened before the article, and her reactions to the trip.

The purpose this was written for was, simply,  to share her experience of her trip to the audience. She also wanted to show us that this city of Troy is “Far From Dead” because as she said, “Someone—a particular person, with a particular life—had placed these stones exactly here. And here they had stayed, through fire and flood and earthquake and storm.”. So it is still alive and well today!

The audience of this piece is a very wide range of people. Of course, it attracts those who love the story “Iliad” by Homer. It can also attract those just interested in ancient roman history. All in all, this article is for everyone who enjoys the “classics” – and even for those who may just know of the classics – because she does a fantastic job of explaining what the “Iliad” is.

She used some simple literary rhetorical devices such as imagery and allusions from the story. Imagery was shown when she was describing how much the actual sight of Troy was alike to the descriptions in the story. Here is where she compares through description: “A sign pointed to the highest ground, one of the old ruined towers that Homer had described, its jagged walls like a broken tooth.” She then added allusion in when she talked about what she remembered from her readings as a child:

“Homer's descriptions of the ancient city felt vivid enough to touch: the huge, brazen gates; the stone walls said to have been built by the gods; the lofty towers leaning over the plain where swift-footed Achilles slew Hector…”

Yes, she completely accomplished her purpose. She did because although I didn’t know, I detail, too much about the “Iliad”, she was able to not only describe what it was all about, but also connect the reading and her own experience into one article. I felt as if I was there alongside of her as I read it, due to her descriptions and connections!