Paper 1, Question 2

 The following text provided is from the book “Roads to Qouz, An American Mosey.” The extract is written as a narrative that is telling the writer’s experience when he was traveling rural America. William Heat-Moon uses form, structure, and language to describe his experience in Little Lanesboro to Joe’s County Store. The text’s purpose was to give the author’s point of view of the small rural town and everything he encountered there. He uses first-person perspective such as words like “I’ and “we” throughout the text to describe his experiences traveling in rural Pennsylvania and the atmosphere around the small town. 

The extract is written as a narrative that is structured chronologically of every event that the writer occurs. Each paragraph is broken down into different sections of different topics and each has a different mood while reading as well. The chronological order of events shows the development of the writer and how he meets and talks with each character. In the first paragraph, the writer is in Joe’s County Store which is a small grocery store. While looking at the sandwiches he realizes how Western Pennsylvania calls a certain sandwich a “Zeppelin,” and Eastern calls a “Hoagie,” “Bomber,” and or “Grinder.” This then shows the writer’s wide expertise in the state. Then the writer goes on with conversations he had with other people in the store, “Betty was Patricia.” The first paragraphs give descriptions of the small store and all the employees that work there as he builds a relationship with them. The paragraphs start off as the writer entering the store, then ordering and eating one of the sandwiches, all while he is learning about the history of the town. 

Heat-Moon picks a particular language to describe the rural town and the small store. He picks his adjectives carefully and wants the store to be in a friendly tone “appearance of a village.” However, is rather rundown and described in the state of “old village grocery.” The use of this language contributes to the tone of developing the reader’s visualization of the tone and each character. In the beginning, the writer acknowledges the hard work the cooks are doing the cook the sandwiches and the “homemade pizza dough.” This then shows how the writer cares about the store and all the hard work put in to maintain it even though it might not be in the best condition. The tone in Heat-Moon’s writing helps pick the particular language to describe the town and the people within it. Another aspect would be how the writer also includes nouns like “shaken milk,” and “milkshake,” to give different aspects on how they used that specific name differently throughout the region. This means the writer again, has a piece of great knowledge of different regions around him.  

The atmosphere of the town and the characters help the reader develop and picture of an idea of what the town and store look like. The writer’s language comes off as the town is somewhere he grew up at “To everyone's sorry,” “Mama rolled pizza.” The writer then talks about how his wife feels at home and sits in “one of the four wooden booths,” before they eat the food being prepared for them. The casual tone and language show just how comfortable the narrator and his wife feel in the small town and store. The writer then goes on to describe there the four booths at the store and then he goes on to call Sarah’s mother “Mama” which then goes to show again, the friendly and welcoming environment the narrator feels at the general store.