PARALLELISM
Parallelism (anaphora and epiphora, antimetabole, anatithesis, chiasmus, )
Definition of Parallelism
Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning, or meter. Parallelism examples are found in literary works as well as in ordinary conversations.Common Examples of Parallelism
- Like father, like son; no pain, no gain, easy come, easy go ...
- Whether in class, at work, or at home, I was always busy.
- Flying is fast, comfortable, and safe.
Short Examples of Parallelism in Speech
- They got together, conversed, and dispersed, but to no avail.
- He came, he saw, and he conquered.
- He wanted to have a new house to live in, and a new car to drive.
- The applicant was approached through telephone, email, and snail mail.
- Their new teacher was neither a Catholic, nor an Anglican.
- His favorite foods are chocolate, chips, and soft drinks.
- The new airline claims to be fast, efficient, and safe.
- James liked fast food, while Mary liked conventional food.
- The boss said, “You need to work hard and be efficient to get a promotion.”
- The political leader said, “The present government has ruined the economy; it has ruined the education system; and it has ruined the health system of our country.”
- Shakespeare was a prolific playwright and an excellent sonneteer.
- The culprit was wanted dead or alive.
- He preferred fruits to sweets.
- The book was interesting as well as adventurous.
- For success in life, one needs to pursue his goal with determination and perseverance.
Examples of Parallelism in Literature
In literature, parallelism is used in different ways to impress upon the readers certain messages or moral lessons. Let us analyze a few examples of parallelism in literature:Example #1: An Essay on Criticism (By Alexander Pope)
Antithesis is a kind of parallelism in which two opposite ideas are put together in parallel structures. Alexander Pope, in his An Essay on Criticism, uses antithetic parallel structure:“To err is human; to forgive divine.”Imperfection is a human trait, and God is most forgiving. Through these antithetical but parallel structures, the poet wants to say that God is forgiving because his creation is erring.
Example #3: A Tale of Two Cities (By Charles Dickens)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”By repeating “It was…” in the passage, the readers are prompted to focus on the traits of the “age” they will read about in the succeeding passages.
Example #6: I have a Dream speech (By Martin Luther King Jr.)
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’This is a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. in which he repeats the phrase, “I have a dream” several times. This phrase later became the title of the speech. This is a good example of parallelism. Also "Somewhere I read ..."
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
“I have a dream today.”
Example #8: Presidential Inauguration Speech (By Barack Obama)
“My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.”In this speech, U.S. President Barack Obama uses structural parallelism in the bold phrases, giving his speech beauty.
Function of Parallelism
The use of parallel structures in speech or writing allows speakers and writers to maintain a consistency within their work, and create a balanced flow of ideas. Moreover, it can be employed as a tool for persuasion.When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length. For instance, "King Alfred tried to make the law clear, precise, and equitable." The previous sentence has parallel structure in use of adjectives. However, the following sentence does not use parallelism: "King Alfred tried to make clear laws that had precision and were equitable."
If the writer uses two parallel structures, the result is isocolon parallelism:
* The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
Antithesis (plural antitheses) -- contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. (exact opposite) /ænˈtɪθɪsɪs/. The juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas
An antithesis as a figure of speech at the sentence level builds on these powerful natural pairs (opposite pairs of words or antoyms), the use of one in the first half of the figure creating the expectation of its verbal partner in the second half.
* Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.
* There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today.
* We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.
* Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.
* We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
* Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it. (a contrast of opposites)
* One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind. (a contrast of degree).
* Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.
* Men always want to be a woman's first love; women like to be a man's last romance.
Chiasmus
Reversal of grammatical structures in successive clauses. In rhetoric, chiasmus is a verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed. Essentially the same as antimetabole. Adjective: chiastic. Plural: chiasmus or chiasmi.
* You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.
* I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me.
* Do I love you because you're beautiful? Or are you beautiful because I love you?
* The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults.
* People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.
* (Always) Be who you are / do what you want, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
* Never let a fool kiss you--or a kiss fool you.
* Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.
- Remembering Marilyn Monroe I am sure she meant, that before marriage to keep a man interested you had to make love to him. If you didn't someone else would. However, after marriage the chase is over and the guy may lose interest in the woman so she has to work harder to get him to make love to her
In rhetoric, a verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the words in reverse grammatical order (A-B-C, C-B-A). Antimetabole is essentially the same as chiasmus.
* When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
* Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you.
* Don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask (instead) what you can do for your country.
* Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
* If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.
* One should eat to live, not live to eat.* Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
* If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.
* You like it; it likes you.
* I lead the life I love; I love the life I lead.
* By failing to prepare you're preparing to fail.
* When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.
* Women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget.
Epiphora (or epistrophe)
Epiphora can be combined with parallelism, as in the following expression attributed to both [Abraham] Lincoln and P. T. Barnum:
* You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
Definition of Epiphora
Epiphora, also known as “epistrophe,” is a stylistic device in which a word or a phrase is repeated at the ends of successive clauses. Examples of epiphora are not only found in literary pieces, but debates and persuasive writings are also rich with epiphora examples.Epiphora and Anaphora
Epiphora is an exact counterpart of another figure of speech, anaphora. An anaphora is repetition of the first part of successive sentences, whereas in an epiphora repetition occurs in the last part of successive clauses and sentences. For example, “Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better and better” is an example of anaphora, as the word “every” is repeated in the successive clauses.The sentence, “I am an American, he is an American, and everybody here is an American,” exhibits epiphora, as the repetition is in the last part of the successive clauses. Despite being different in their structures, both anaphora and epiphora have the same function of laying emphasis on a particular point.
Function of Epiphora
Epiphora, or epistrophe, is a literary device that serves the function of furnishing an artistic effect to passages, in both poetry and prose. It lays emphasis on a particular idea, as well as giving a unique rhythm to the text, which consequently becomes a pleasurable experience for the readers. That is the reason that it is easily understood and memorized, and easier to comprehend. As a rhetorical or stylistic device, epiphora is brought into action to appeal to the emotions of the audience in order to persuade them.Anaphora
Anaphora Definition
In writing or speech, the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect is known as Anaphora.* Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
Common Anaphora Examples
It is common for us to use anaphora in our everyday speech, to lay emphasis on the idea we want to convey, or for self affirmation. The following are anaphora examples:
- “Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better and better.”
- “My life is my purpose. My life is my goal. My life is my inspiration.”
- “Buying diapers for the baby, feeding the baby, playing with the baby: This is what your life is when you have a baby.”
- “I want my money right now, right here, all right?”
- “The wrong person was selected for the wrong job, at the wrong time, for the wrong purpose.”
- “Their property was sold, their homestead was sold, and their everything was sold for want.”
- “Who is to blame, who is to look to, who is to turn to, in a tough situation like this.”
- “In adversity, his close friends left him, his close colleagues left him, and his best close relatives left him.”
- “Everything looked dark and bleak, everything looked gloomy, and everything was under a blanket of mist.”
- “All the people were moving in the same direction; all the people were thinking about the same thing; and all the people were discussing the same topic.”
- “After a long term of studies, the students wanted to go home, they wanted to play, and they wanted to meet their parents and friends.”
- “The players were much exited for the tour; the players wished to do a lot of shopping; the players planned to go sightseeing.”
- “The young writer was given the award for his best seller. The young writer was exited to get the reward, and he decided to celebrate the occasion in a fitting manner.”
- “Tell them to be good, tell them to follow their elders, and tell them to mind their manners.”
- “The young athlete was in a decent uniform, and wanted to perform very well.”
- “My mother liked the house very much, but she couldn’t buy it.”
- “An apple fell on the head of a peasant, but he couldn’t grasp the laws of motion.”
- “The search party barely got to the middle of the desert, when a storm overtook it.”
- “The film was based on a true story, but it failed to get viewers’ attention.”
Examples of Anaphora in Literature
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”The repetitive structure used in the above lines make it the most memorable and remarkable start of a narrative ever achieved by a writer. The word “it” – repeated all the way through the passage – makes the reader focus more on the traits of the “age” they are reading about.
WWII Speech (By Winston Churchill)
Politicians frequently use anaphora as a rhetorical device, in their addresses and political speeches, to evoke passion among the audience. Read an excerpt from Winston Churchill’s speech during the Second World War:“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”This extract from Winston Churchill’s speech is full of anaphoric examples in which the speaker has spoken the phrase “we shall” several times to refer to the plural form that he is using for the whole nation.
The repetitive structures in the above passage suggest the importance of the war for England. Moreover, it inspires patriotic sentiments among the masses.
I have a Dream (By Martin Luther King Jr.)
“Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”This extract from I have a Dream contains the repetition of the phrase “go back to” many time. The whole speech is full of the anaphoric example.
Function of Anaphora
Apart from the function of giving prominence to certain ideas, the use of anaphora in literature adds rhythm, thus making it more pleasurable to read, and easier to remember. As a literary device, anaphora serves the purpose of giving artistic effect to passages of prose and poetry.As a rhetorical device, anaphora is used to appeal to the emotions of the audience, in order to persuade, inspire, motivate, and encourage them.
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