In What You Learn in
College by Karen Donley-Hayes, Hayes uses powerful anaphora to provoke a
sense of urgency and anxiety in the tone so that the reader can feel what she
was feeling and understand the terror she experienced. The author is the
College Editor at Hiram College and has published many works in sources like The Journal of the American Medical
Association and The Healing Muse.
What You Learn in College is a short nonfiction story about a dreadful
period of revelation for the author in which she agrees to play strip
spin-the-bottle in with her college friends while under the influence. The text
was written for other college students to prevent them from partaking in risky
or dangerous activities, given that they have just received a tremendous amount
of independence. In order to achieve her purpose, the author employs the
rhetorical strategy of anaphora, repeating the same two phrases in order to
change the tone of the essay. This device is evident when she writes, “The
bottle spins. You learn you couldn’t leave even if you had the nerve […] The
bottle spins. You learn […]” (Hayes 3-7). Not only does the author use anaphora
at the beginning of each paragraph by starting each with ‘You learn’, but she strategically
uses the device here as well. By repeating the phrase ‘The bottle spins’ followed
by the sad revelations she discovers afterward, it builds up to her regretting
the decision, and it creates a feverish sense of anxiety for the reader. The
urgency can be felt as the reader quickens their pace and devours the words to
reach her final lesson. This makes the reader’s heart race and breaths shallow
as they follower her on her similar journey, thus making them feel the same
way, understanding her fear, and knowing not to make the same mistake. I
whole-heatedly believe that the author accomplished her purpose. Her work made
me fear for her and feel scared with her. It taught me not to make quick decisions
like she did, which is what she was trying to achieve.
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