Esteban Garcia
ENG101W Sec. 1008
Ms. Dickerson
29 September 2011
Everlasting Youth
In Josh Weil’s narrative “The Summer That Ended All Summers” he conveys the theme that liberty always ends along with youth. He uses several literary features, the most predominant being his vivid use of imagery in addition to his clever use of syntax, punctuation and tone. Weil manages to paint pictures that illustrate the sense of freedom and exploration. He then uses syntax along with certain punctuation to create a tone that mimics his imagery and expresses his sense of losing his liberty. The end result is a narrative that relays to its readers the theme that liberty ends along with youth.
In Josh’s narrative he begins by alluding to what might have caused a spinal disk to burst and how it ended his summer in North Africa. Then he goes on to recounting the fun moments he had while a kid with his brother during summer. They would travel over the world. Some of the places Josh mentions in his narrative are,England, Scotland, France, Spain and even the city of light, Paris! Unfortunately this came to an end after Weil’s injury and now rests with his brother’s family, still thinking of exploration.
The entire narrative is filled with imagery. In the beginning, Josh paints the image of freedom that he as a young person had. He begins by painting in the first paragraph vivid pictures pyramids and valiant scenes of men leaping from tussock to tussock. He does this throughout the his narrative, retelling several of his stories of his youth. He even drove off in England with a Madonna impersonator. All these images depict the freedom that he had. This is later contrasted in the end of the narrative after when his imagery relays the sense of being done. His youth has ended, his fun summers are over, and the readers discovers images of Josh walking his dog and smelling the scent of grilled food but only to come home after they had finished, "When I got there, nobody was outside"(L.84). He then emphasizes the freedoms that come with youth when he creates the image of his 3 year old niece laying beside him and easily mimicking his leg lift exercise. His niece being young has the freedom of doing whatever she wants. This gives the impression that when young, people are strong and capable but after youth, they become weak.
Josh cleverly uses syntax and punctuation creating a tone that emphasizes the theme that the images are try to convey. Often he uses em dashes, to create longer pauses in the reading. In the very first paragraph, he uses to them emphasize the negative tone of his injury. Almost making it seem as if he regrets the injury and is wanting to explain why his youth came to an end. He feels this way because he enjoyed his youth, "Ever since I was a kid, I'd lived for summer..." (L.10). Another thing to notice is the short paragraphs he uses in the beginning. They are often a sentence or two long. This gives the tone a short bursts of excitement, emphasizing the fun and freedoms of youth along with shortness of Summer. Then later on after his youth has ended, his paragraphs become longer and the tone becomes darker. This is a reflection of his current state. Unlike his brother, he is alone and no longer young as depicted by the imagery, “And I, looking in, watched.” (LL.80-81). The en dashes used along with the length of the paragraphs help the imagery display the theme that liberty ends when youth ends.
Josh Weil uses imagery along with puntuation and