Interpretations of the Antarctic Essay

Introduction

Even though travel and leisure are more available today than they ever have been, for many people experiences of the world are gained more through virtual channels than by actually discovering this world first-hand. We may be interested in what’s happening in Iraq, but we don’t actually have the time, the finances or the determination to purposely travel to a war zone. Instead, we depend upon the descriptions of others to help us understand the situation ‘on the ground.’ The problem with this is that we neglect to understand just how much of this description depends upon the way in which the author views it and portrays it within his work. Depending on factors such as sentence length, word choice and point of view, a very different impression might be reached when reading about the same general topic as is seen when comparing a less controversial topic in Richard Byrd’s article “Alone in the Antarctic” with Graham Billing’s “Life in the Antarctic.”

Sentence length

Within these two descriptive paragraphs, the authors utilize the element of sentence length to denote different ideas regarding the nature of the Antarctic. Byrd uses short, choppy sentences and phrases to give the place a sense of desolation and lifelessness. He says, “Advance Base was geared to different laws. On getting up in the morning, it was enough for me to say to myself: Today is the day to change the barograph sheet, or, Today is the day to fill the stove tank” (Byrd). The first sentence is very short, giving an impression of finality in its different laws. The second sentence is compound, but chopped into small phrases and internal statements. This is very different from the long run-on sentences found in Billing’s paragraph. The first sentence of the piece runs for five and a half lines. In talking about the various ways that the ocean helps to regulate the life cycles of the Antarctic through its dense populations of plankton, Billing’s long sentence reinforces the idea of irrepressible energy and life. Following this sentence is a relatively short sentence that is the only break the reader gets before reaching the last sentence, another marathon run-on statement that stretches across more than six lines of text. The reader is given a sense of breathless vitality as compared to the lifeless inactivity depicted in Byrd’s paragraph.

Word Choice

Word choice can also have a tremendous effect on the way in which a reader might understand a description. Byrd begins his paragraph with the somewhat puzzling statement, “May was a round boulder sinking before a tide.” His choice of words forces the reader to immediately engage with the text in order to understand that the word ‘May’ in this statement actually refers to the month of the year. Having achieved this, it is then necessary for the reader to make the connection between the imagery of the boulder sinking before a tide and the concept of a particular month.

Within this first short sentence, Byrd has given his reader a sense of unavoidable decline, inevitable destruction and associated it with the month most closely associated with a return of the sun and springtime, the season of growth. These ideas are reinforced by the end of the selection as he discusses the characteristics of the lifeless darkness of his surroundings. This is strongly contrasted against the energetic language used by Billing as he uses active verbs to describe the setting. The sea is “freezing”, the “salt-heavy water” was “motivating” and “the giant whales” are “tending their circumpolar pastures rolled ceaselessly among the endless west-wing driven storms and swells opening and closing their cavernous jaws” (Billing). While Byrd’s language is halted and disintegrating, Billings’ is active and moving.

Point of view

Finally, point of view has a great deal to do with the author’s impressions as well as the way in which the reader understands his perspective. Byrd’s paragraph is presented in first person evidently giving an impression of the Antarctic just at the beginning of the Antarctic winter. “My world was insulated against the shocks running through distant economies” (Byrd). The world he sees is increasingly covered in darkness as his first-person account gets the reader more intimately involved in the action, or inaction, of the piece. This is contrasted against Billings’ third-person point of view in which he is describing the cycles of life he knows occur. “And in the vast vegetable seas the whalefeed, the shrimp-like krill, multiplied in geometric progression” (Billings) sounds like the description that might be handed down by God as he instructs us on how the world works. The reader is removed from the action but is aware that action is happening.

Conclusion

In comparing these two paragraphs, one gets a completely different sense of the world of the Antarctic that seem to be mutually exclusive. While the Antarctic of Byrd is found to be cold, dark and lifeless, that of Billings is seen to be full of life, light and energy. The paragraphs are equally attractive to the reader as Byrd engages the reader through his first-person presentation and Billings does so with his energetic use of language. As we consider the words we read to glean information about the world we cannot directly experience for ourselves, it is important to keep these ideas in mind to try to determine just how these reports might be skewed intentionally or unintentionally by the focus of the writer and the techniques he uses.

Works Cited

Billing, Graham. “Life in the Antarctic.”

Byrd, Richard E. “Alone in the Antarctic.”