The Power of Word Choice

Throughout the memoir, Brent Runyon uses a unique choice of writing, he tries to appeal to us as readers by using language that we can relate to.

“I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish ” pg.106. Brent felt regret. How was he able to burn himself? I continue to ask myself that same question. Repeating the words over and over show the level of stress Brent is going through. He didn’t realize the pain he was putting himself into when he decided to commit suicide.

While writing Runyon continues to repeat the word “fuck”, he makes the reader feel his desperation. He fucks every single thing that goes against his wishes. “Oh, fuck God, this hurts” (pg 93) “fucking Jesus Christ this fucking hurts” (pg. 93).  In third grade my teacher always corrected me to say the word “Gosh” instead of “God” because she said I was disrespectful. With this on my mind I see Brent as a very disrespectful person that really doesn’t care how he refers to God. One shouldn’t use God’s name in vain. Christians who read this book could get disturbed.

Brent’s uses word choice so he can relate more to the readers, and like this express his feelings even more sincere. By reading the way he writer and the fact that continuously he repeats the f-words makes the readers also remember that he is just a teenager. His style of expression is very liberal.

The way Runyon chooses insulting words while he writes such as “that’s fucking stupid” (pg. 188) makes the reader feel intimidated by the way he writes. When he describes the scenes such as “then she put her hand on top of my penis, outside my pants” (pg. 103) I was disturbed. Now I understand why my teacher insisted that this was a men book. I ignored this comment and decided to choose it so here are the consequences.