Hi. Mr. Sato. Let's talk about the effect of word choices.
Sometimes, a student will ask me what an unfamiliar word means, like "censure"
and I'll give an easier synonym, like "scold."
And sometimes that student will ask, very reasonably,
"why didn't the writer just use the easier word?"
The answer is because different words have slightly different shades of meaning.
They have different connotations and communicate a different attitude.
What's a connotation?
To answer that, I have to explain the difference between
denotation and connotation.
The denotation of a word is what it means, like in the dictionary.
Both dictionary and denotation start with a D,
so that might help you remember it.
The denotation of "affluent" is having a lot of money. Its synonym, "rich,"
means pretty much the same thing in the dictionary,
so that means they have the same denotation.
The connotation of a word is the cloud of feelings and associations
that come with the word. For example, for some people,
"affluent" has a mostly positive sound to it. If you had a
lot of money and someone said you were affluent, you might be
a little embarrassed at your good fortune, but you
probably wouldn't be insulted. We associate expensive houses
and nice cars and summers in exotic places with that word.
Those associations floating around the word are its connotations.
On the whole, I believe "affluent" has mostly
positive, or at worst, neutral, connotations.
But the word "rich" or better yet, the phrase, "filthy rich," has a negative connotation.
The phrase "filthy rich" brings up images of people wasting their money
on ridiculous extravagances like
diamond-studded 24-karat gold collars for their pet lemurs. It suggests, or hints,
at arrogance and insensitivity to people who are less fortunate than they are.
So the phrase "filthy rich" has more negative connotations.
Like I said, connotation is the meanings, feelings, and associations
that surround the word.
So, "affluent" and "rich" have the same denotation, but different connotations.
Do you understand?
Being alert to the effect different word choices have is an important skill,
and, as a result,
you may be asked in your English class to do something like this:
(Mr. Sato reading the words above.)
It sounds intimidating, I know. But relax. The reason it sounds scary is because it's
actually two separate tasks lumped together into one big one.
The two tasks are:
1. You need to be able to figure out the connotations of the author's word choices.
2. You need to be able to recognize how a pattern of connotations impacts
the meaning and tone.
We can't easily do these things separately. The two processes are integrated
into one another.
While looking at the connotations, you feel how they create the tone or attitude.
And the connotations and tone both communicate the author's
meaning, or theme.
Like riding a bike, you have to balance, pedal, and steer simultaneously.
You can't do them separately.
Now let me show you how it's done. Read this poem with me. It's only 7 lines.
"All armies are the same..." is both the title and the first line.
(Mr. Sato reading the poem slowly.)
A century later, the last line of this poem is still shocking. In 1918, this American
writer witnessed the horrors of war in World War I when he was
an ambulance driver in Italy.
So, let's look at the poem, line by line, very closely. We'll be focusing
not on denotations, but on connotations.
Line 1: "All armies are the same"
Well, we know this is a figure of speech because we know that different armies
have different uniforms,
different kinds of soldiers, some armies are bigger than others.
They aren't literally the same.
So what does Hemingway mean by this phrase? Think about it.
When someone says "all such-and-such are the same,"
it's usually pretty negative, right?
Something bad happens, and somebody looks at you, shrugs, and says,
"it's a-a-a-always the same." There's resignation in the tone there,
maybe even disgust. It's like, "It sucks, but there's
nothing we can do about it."
The next line: "Publicity is fame"
is comparing two things. Why did Hemingway choose these two words?
Publicity equals fame.
Well, both words mean "public attention," but they aren't really the same, are they?
They have similar denotations, but their connotations are different.
When we think of publicity, we might think of posters
promoting a cause or organization. When a corporation wants
people to know that it donated money to a charity, that's publicity.
Organizations have whole departments dedicated to publicity,
because that kind of public attention eventually
means more money for that organization.
Nothing wrong with that. But it isn't fame.
Fame, especially as it was understood 100 years ago, is being known by people
for doing something admirable, like a hero.
An actor might have fame for being really good at his job.
It's not that different from publicity, that's true. But while publicity suggests
that money might be the motive for the attention, fame has connotations
of attention received for being brave, or talented,
and the person might never have even tried to get the attention--
it was just given, unasked for, by people who admired him or her
because he or she deserved it.
Not so with publicity. People seek out publicity on purpose, usually
to get themselves money or some kind of advantage.
So by comparing these two words, the author suggests that maybe
the people we think of as having achieved fame
are just the products of publicity, and that the people who pushed
them into the spotlight might have had motives that weren't so noble.
For example, in 1960s China, Lei Feng here was a so-called hero who
was more political propaganda than a real person.
A Star Trek character named Li Nalas fit this description, too.
Hemingway's tone is critical and condemning.
"Artillery makes the same old noise"
Kind of like the first line, isn't it? See this picture? This is artillery.
And, yeah, they're noisy, all right.
But look closely at the wording. "The same old noise." Negative connotation.
You can compare a loud sound to something more positive or neutral, like
a crack of thunder, or a crashing waterfall. But the poet compares them to noise,
something irritating.
"Valor is an attribute of boys"
Valor is kind of an old fashioned word, but there is a current videogame
with the word valor in the title.
It's a first-person-shooter type war game, which is appropriate because
valor means great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.
We associate the word with war heroes.
We give medals with the word on it. So valor's a good thing, right?
But in this line, Hemingway puts it down. He says it's an "attribute of boys."
Attribute, used this way, means a characteristic.
The tone is still negative, dismissive. What's he dismissing?
He's saying that valor, which is (on the surface at least) a good thing,
is a characteristic of boys, not men,
men who've actually been in battle. In the context of war, being a child of any kind
is not good. Connotations of the word, "boys" include weakness and immaturity.
So he's connecting the concept of valor with being immature and naive.
That connects with the next line.
"Old soldiers have tired eyes"
So, the men who've actually been in war for a while and aren't at home playing
make-believe war on video games do not look happy and excited after a day
of fighting. Their eyes are "tired," he says.
A person looks tired when they've been doing hard work or haven't been sleeping,
but when you say a person's eyes are tired, it carries a connotation of
emotional tiredness, sadness, maybe even depression.
Ask a veteran what the "thousand yard stare" is. So "tired" is a negative,
unglamorous word. You may already have noticed a pattern taking form.
His word choices about war carry connotations of disgust and anger,
ridicule of lofty ideals as being fake.
Then the poet says, "All soldiers hear the same old lies."
So, here, in the last two lines, the language turns even harder and more angry.
The word "lies" is strongly negative. In this context, a lie to a soldier suggests betrayal.
And he's already told us what the lies are: the notions of fame and valor.
Who's telling these lies? The poem doesn't say.
But you can speculate. Who would they be likely to hear these things from?
Their commanding officers? Politicians, who told them the war would
be over in just a few months?
Their families and friends back home who aren't here in the mud and the death,
and don't understand what it's like? Maybe it's all of the above.
But the important thing is that these old soldiers feel like
they've been lied to about what war is all about.
So, what is war-- in reality? He answers that question in the next line, which is
like a slap in the face.
"Dead bodies have always drawn flies."
These word choices could not be harsher or uglier. The images are of
unburied corpses, the opposite of
the romantic images of valor and fame he's just crushed. These words are
meant to shock.
The day-to-day truth about war, Hemingway says, is dead bodies with
flies buzzing around them.
It's not an idea, like freedom, or a flag, or a notion of honor and fame.
When you're there in the middle of it, all that stuff isn't real.
Those dead bodies are what is real.
That person you were talking to about an hour ago? He was real.
And now he's dead and sickening to look at,
crawling with flies. And maybe tomorrow that'll be you.
And now Hemingway has forced this image into your mind and you can't unsee that.
He wants you to associate what you feel about that image with war.
As an ambulance driver on the Italian front in 1918, Hemingway must have
seen a lot of this.
All right. So now, we've closely studied the connotations of the words in the poem.
And we've shown how Hemingway's word choices created
a harshly negative tone when talking about war and the romantic image
of war that was spread around then. The word "romantic" has
several meanings, but this kind of "romantic" means
unrealistically adventurous and exciting.
So now you understand the poem. This could be your thesis:
(Mr.Sato reading the words above.)
Next, you have to write your analysis, so you have to build your case.
You have to support your analysis with evidence
from the poem. So look back at what you said about the connotations.
All armies are the same (line 1). Artillery makes the same old noise (line 3).
In these lines there's a strong feeling of disapproval, even condemnation, of
the things associated with war. His tone is angry, even bitter.
And valor, and fame, those things some people think war is about?
It's far away from the daily crud the more experienced soldiers know
that they have to face every day. Only kids, boys (like 4),
think that war is about fame (line 2) and valor (line 4).
Maybe the new recruits come in with their heads filled with patriotism and
ideas of adventure and glory.
But when they're older, they have "tired eyes" (line 5), a phrase
that suggests exhaustion and depression.
They've figured out that they've been lied to (line 6). The reality of war
is not valor and fame, but death and decay (line 7).
There is a pattern of brutal, angry words. It isn't just one or two words,
or even a couple of lines.
it's a pattern that runs through the whole poem. His words are simple
and blunt. There are no big words and lofty abstract concepts,
except when he mentions them in order to dismiss them
as childish ideas. The impact of his words accumulate and put you
down there on the ground with the noise, the weariness, and the stink.
It rips away all the cool romanticism associated
with the words valor and fame.
And the meaning of this poem? The theme?
He's definitely condemning this war and the lies that were told to get men
to fight it. But he's also condemning the whole concept of war in a
more universal way because he generalized his comments about
"all armies (line 1)" and "all soldiers (line 6)."
Artillery in general and old soldiers in general, not just this artillery
or these old soldiers (lines 3 and 5). And not just in World War I, but
"always" (line 7). He feels that war is a horrible betrayal of young people's
courage and patriotism, and that the people with the authority
to send people to war should give them a more realistic picture
of what war is going to be like. That's a meaning, or a theme.
The words people use have an impact. They reveal things. For example,
let's say you're the boss of a small business, and you're
interviewing people for a job. If you know how to pick up clues
you find in their words, you might see that this person has a lousy attitude
about work, and you, the boss, can find someone who'll do a better job
and be happier working for you.
Or if you want to make a good impression on somebody, you could
improve your chances by paying attention to the connotations of your words
and how they impact your tone.
So, being able to understand what someone's attitude is,
even if he or she isn't openly saying it --
or being able to communicate in a way that gets you the result you want --
could not be more valuable. By learning to do this with literature,
you're learning something you'll use in your adult life.
Have fun with your assignment.