like taking diction from a small child

When Ethel Wilson wrote The Innocent Traveller she was old. She was elderly; so far over the hill that she passed through the valley on the other side and was almost over the next hill. Compared to us 'younguns' she was practically ancient... a dinosaur, a relic, a brittle artifact! Okay, maybe not that old... but much older than her main character Topaz Edgeworth, and yet she wrote through children's eyes with flawless accuracy and believability. This became especially noticeable in "The Dark House and Detested Wife" when Topaz is writing a letter home to her parents. This was probably the only time I was fully engaged in the world of the novel, and it was because I really felt the voice of a little girl in that letter. Wilson's regular writing style contrasts like black and white with Topaz's letter as soon as it begins:

"I hope you are very well. Thank you very much for the 2/6 for me and for Hannah. Hannah's cold is still bad so Mrs. Porter kept her in bed. I like it here. Every afternoon we have a walk. The waves are lovely..." and so on.

It continues like that for the whole letter, but you only need two and a half lines to see he difference: instant grammatical errors, short sentences - sentences that don't seem to have any flow or strong connection, and just a youthful vibe. In other parts of the letter there are jumps from subject to subject, but the entire thing is one giant paragraph.
My favourite part is her cute little spelling mistakes; the kind you read in journal entries or on projects from elementary school and think, 'Was I that ridiculous?' Just enough of these gems show up in Topaz's letter, including 'amewsing'(amusing), 'plannets'(planets), and 'cruley'(curly). Wilson doesn't overdo it - after all, Topaz is a bright young lady, and too many or too few deliberate errors would be an actual error on Wilson's part.


Lastly, some of the best child-like elements of this letter are the run-on sentences. I remember doing that a lot when I was younger, just adding countless 'and's to connect my thoughts rather than commas or periods. That's how we talk when we're young, why not write that way as well? The best example of this is on page 38:

"Eliza Pinder said that Topaz Edgeworth was very fond of the sound of her own voice and I said I was thankful indeed that i hadn't a Yorkshire accent to listen to and she said I was a rude cow with no manners from Staffordshire and I said no one should say such a thing to me unscathed and I slapped Eliza Pinder and Mrs. Porter came in."

I think the most amazing part is that she spells something like 'unscathed' properly but can't get 'curly'...

But I digress! The point is that there is an obvious age gap between Ethel Wilson and her character Topaz. Wilson masterfully fills this gap however, using this letter a metaphorical gap-filling device of some sort.

That last part sounded better in my head.

Use of Pathos In Emily Carr's "Sophie"

Aristotle felt that the use of Pathos was a key tool in his “Trivium” of literature. Pathos is the passion within the writing, the feelings and sense of experience fused into the piece. It appeals to the reader’s heart and emotions. Emily Carr’s short story “Sophie” uses this concept of Pathos to build emotive power and manipulate the reader’s emotions to reflect those in the story.

The reader can’t help but empathize with little Sophie, who “chatters like a sparrow” to her trusted friend Emily, but becomes shy and self-conscious around her own husband. This is a woman who endures unimaginable tragedy over the course of this story. The loss of twenty-one children is an unbearable concept, yet this woman, with her “soft little body, and a back as straight as honesty itself” has borne this burden.

Pathos is strongly apparent at the funeral for one of Sophie’s children. The hurt that these women feel comes across explicitly: “torrents of tears burst from their eyes and rolled down their cheeks. Sophie and Sara and Susan did it too. It sounded terrible- like tortured dogs”. The reader feels the torture and pain emanating from these words. He or she doesn’t have to be a mother, father, sibling, or friend of Sophie to empathize with her; Emily Carr has captured and created these emotions in the reader by applying Pathos as a literary tool.

Emily Carr’s utilization of Pathos here is definite. Her own empathy and feeling towards Sophie as a character in the story herself is felt and shared by the reader, a bystander simply watching their story unfold.

Is Topaz Novel Worthy?

A hearty debate came about in class on Monday on whether the character Topaz from Ethel Wilson's The Innocent Traveler is worth an entire novel. Looking at it from one perspective she did not do anything extraordinary. As a matter of fact she was completely ordinary. The novel seemed like it was merely a synopsis of a person's life, just like any other person's. We might as well get our nieces to publish books on our life stories since it would amount to the same thing. All of us have some interesting events that occurred in our lives that can be easily scribbled onto a couple of pages. So why in this case did this rather simple woman deserve a novel?

Just the concept that Topaz did not change from the time she was five to the age of 95 is astonishing. The idea is so surreal and far fetched that its difficult to even grasp. I changed since last year and I have changed countless times since I was five. Most people do not even live till the age of 95 let alone stay the exact same person for all those years. It does not seem possible for someone to never grow up.

This is especially true in today's society because there is such a pressure to grow up, and act mature. That is why Topaz's character seems so unrealistic. Once you are at a certain age, usually around 12, it is no longer appropriate to act childish. Adulthood takes over and it is all about responsibilities, pulling your weight, hardships and a serious nature. This concept of being a child forever is not realistic and does not seem attainable.

Even the idea of being free-spirited is easier said than done. Everything in our world is rush, rush, rush; just about making ends meet. We do not leave time to live and enjoy things anymore. The way most of us live our lives is exactly what Topaz always stood against. So many times I catch myself saying " it would be nice to go back to being a child because everything was easy and happy." It is true I would love to go back to the days where I was a naive little girl and that is where i am jealous of Topaz because even at age 95, she still is that free-spirited, happy, naive girl.

Topaz's personality is very different from what we are used to seeing and in a way the novels shows us what life would be like if we actually could go back to being six again or if we could stay six forever. When looking at it from this perspective I do believe that her life is novel worthy.