Close Reading #1

The article I read was a commentary in the New York Times. The article, by Diane Ackerman, is called “Underwater, Feeling Our Ocean Origins.”  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/underwater-feeling-our-ocean-origins/

            This commentary is written about an experience of scuba diving and the revelation it caused in the thought process of the author. The vivid imagery, powerful and concrete words, and reoccurring figurative language make the article interesting to read and really help the author convey her experience.

            One of the first aspects I noticed about this article was how descriptive it was. The phrases that she used to describe the feeling of being underwater and to describe the underwater beauty really painted a picture in my mind and made me feel as if I was experiencing what she had experienced. Sentences such as “After a 10-minute swim, we suddenly came to a maze of underwater canyons thick with enormous sponges and coral fans, around which schools of circus-colored fish zigzagged. Plump purple sea pens with feathery quills stood in sand inkwells” describes the atmosphere of underwater in the ocean and helps the reader to visualize the vibrant colors of the fish and the sponges. The sentence “My guide’s eyes questioned me through the fishbowl of his face mask” especially stuck out to me because not only does she describe the face mask, she uses ‘fishbowl,’ a term relating to fish and water, which is the general context of this story. The amount of detail that goes into the descriptions is intentional because it’s the author’s way of allowing the reader to be submerged in the ocean alongside her as she goes through the scuba-diving experience.

            Ackerman’s diction, which goes hand in hand with her imagery, is also one of the strengths of the article. She uses concrete words such as “spellbound” to indicate that not only is she happy, but that she’s overwhelmed with happiness and frozen for the moment because she’s trying to take it all in. The connotation of that one word brings the idea of ‘breathtaking’ and it seems that Ackerman uses this word because of its connotation and association with that idea. Another word that caught my attention is “cell-tickling” because this word is used to describe a feeling and is great example of a concrete word. It is a very specific word that cannot really be used in many circumstances, so the fact that it was used here, helps emphasize that the feeling wasn’t one that people normally feel. “Hooked” is also used in the article to describe the feeling of being drawn to something, however instead of saying that she uses the word “hooked” because she is sticking with the theme of fish and water, and hook is a common term used water activities such as fishing. In reading the article, I can see that many of the words were chosen carefully to create the right effect in the reader.

            Figurative language is found throughout the article most commonly in the form of a simile or a metaphor. In using these comparisons, the Ackerman is trying to help the reader understand and experience the same thing that she saw and felt because she knows that many of the readers, such as myself, haven’t been scuba diving. Therefore, she is using the figurative language to connect with the audience and show them what they couldn’t see before. When she says the simile, “On a coral butte just in front of us, a dark sea whip jutted out between the canyon walls, its Medusa-like hair straggling in the current. I laughed. That sea whip’s hair is just like my own” it does multiple things. First, it illustrates to the reader what a sea whip looks like by comparing it to the common Greek reference of Medusa’s hair. She uses a common Greek reference like that because she knows that many of the readers will know what she is talking about. Secondly, she compares the sea whip’s hair to her own, which helps the audience visualize what she looks like. In doing so, she not only compares her hair to the sea whip, but she also compares her hair to Medusa’s creating an image of a wild, tangled mess. A metaphor she uses is “The simple, stupefying truth that, as a woman, I am a minute ocean, in the dark tropic of whose womb eggs lay coded as roe, floating in the sea that wet-nursed us all…” In saying this, the entire article comes together in that she’s comparing herself, and every other woman, to an ocean. This quote shows that the entire article was to describe this metaphor, that as the fish and creatures lived and thrived in the ocean, the eggs in the female live and thrive in the womb. This metaphor also connects and makes sense of the title “Underwater, Feeling Our Ocean Origins.” Our ocean origin being that every person started out living and thriving in the womb of their mother, as the fish live and thrive in the ocean.

            Analyzing the imagery, diction, and figurative language in the article creates much more meaning because it helps the reader to understand the intent of the author and the reason behind the word choice, descriptions, and comparisons. Initially looking at the article, it seemed like a quick commentary about an experience of scuba-diving, just an easy story to read.  However, after analyzing the various literary factors, I realized the entire point of the story was to make the unlikely connection between the ocean and a woman. Ackerman did a wonderful job displaying these literary elements.