The Unit Strategy and Literary Focus in The tale of a rodent by Roger Starr - Essay Example

In the essay ‘The tale of a rodent’, by Roger Starr, we see the repetition of the phrase ‘animal’ in several of the paragraphs. Such repetition creates a closer relationship between the reader and the small rodent thus enabling them to be in a better position to grasp the work’s hidden meaning.The second device Starr uses to create focus is connectives. Also known as, conjunctions, these devices enable the reader create better connections between different ideas and parts of the work.

These improved connections, in turn, assist the reader to focus on the intended messages better thus placing them at an advantage. In the passage, Roger Starr uses connectives severally to connect phrases and clauses. The connectives ‘and’ and ‘but’ are used severally with interesting results since the reader is able to use these connections to focus his attention on certain themes and characters. The four most potent lines in terms of the aforementioned focus are; “Then I saw what trouble her: an infant rodent – perhaps a mouse, perhaps rat – a small ball of brown cotton with a toothpick for a tail”.

‘Another woman gasped at the sight of the thing’, ‘the instinct that had taken it to that store made it's adult role obvious’, and finally, ‘I felt I had witnessed something small, but supremely serious’. These lines are the best examples of focus as created and reinforced by Roger Starr (Starr, 1981).