Comparative essay on ghosts

English homework

Anna Harju 6.5.2004

Comparative essay on ghosts

- When comparing two different types of texts, there is a criterion to be followed with. The two passages to be compared are completely different text types, but yet similar. The first text, “Ghost” is taken from a book called “Human Personality and Its Survival after Bodily Death” by a psychologist studying paranormal phenomena called F.W. Myers. His book was based on his personal real-life experiences with ghosts. The other text was founded on a story by Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows”. It is a ghost fairy-tale based on the writer’s imagination.

“Ghost” is apart of a book written for people who are interested in psychic phenomena and medium ship; ghosts. It is written for people to recognize observable phenomenon, which the writer Myers studies as a psychologist. People interested in this topic must be of an elderly age with higher education standards. The text is written in form of a third person, with no “I”, “you” or “they”. This shows that it is a factual piece of writing, not a story. Might sound a bit humoristic to say the word “factual” when talking about ghosts, but Myers’ point was to make it clear, that ghosts do exist in this world. The structure of the text is very normal, like any other form of text, with 18 lines and two paragraphs; one short and the other long. The first paragraph consists of 4 lines, which sets an introduction to the second paragraph by saying, “Ghosts, of various guises, are believed in to some degree in all societies”. From lines 5 to 15 is the explanation of the ghosts and how they have been misinterpreted. From lines 16 to 18 is the conclusion of the lack of evidence to prove to the society that ghosts really do exist, 100%. The tone of the writer seems to be very serious, and very persuasive towards ghosts. His tone makes the reader want to believe; well that’s what it did to me at least. It really shows how grave he is towards this topic, which makes his reader’s at least be a bit more interested. The imagery used is not the same as used in poems. “Candle flames or keyholes… much larger… transferred to a distant wall”, this made me picture myself lying down in my bed and seeing a reflection of keyhole against the opposite wall due to the light outside my room. This makes a person scared and makes their imagination go wild, but for nothing, and as a psychologist he uses the term “visual illusions” which plays mind games with our heads.

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The vocabulary used is standard to a certain extent. Throughout the text there are some words that might not be familiar to all readers, but as mentioned before this book is aimed at highly educated people with high English vocabulary skills. Such as “manifestation”, “guises”, “dubious”, “skeptical” and “perceptual”. A lot of psychology vocabulary is used in this text, such as “visual illusions” and “perceptual”. As it is a factual piece of writing, no rhymes, rhythms or sound effects were used. The language is very clear, as to be understood as a whole and apart from the ...

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“The Willows” is a short story, also based on ghosts, but not on real life experiences. It is aimed for people who read ghosts stories and uncanny fiction. These stories are written to explore people’s or the reader’s imagination and open their minds to the mystical world of ghosts writers. This text is a high quality literature piece, which also means that it is targeted at people with high vocabulary and English skills. The text is written in first person with the continuous use of the word “I” and “my”, also “he”. This is another feature of a story, using first person speaking. The structure of the text is standard, with 35 lines and 5 paragraphs. Every other paragraph being short and long. Using quotes of what the characters are saying also shows the reader that this piece of writing is a story. The writer’s tone makes the text very pressurizing, “We were grubbing away in the middle of a thickest of willows…”, “… He whispered”, “he sobbed at me…”, “kind of whistling crying…”, “struggling heap”. “There, in front of the dim glow, something was moving”. By using the word “something” doesn’t let the reader know what it actually is that is moving, which creates suspicion and anxiety. “… like the gauze drop-curtain…” makes the reader think about how that “something” is seen behind the veil. The veil must be light, and see through, which creates an image of wind blowing gently. The tone sets a very forced atmosphere; also the vocabulary used is the main key to how the writer’s tone is. The imagery used in this short story is very vivid and creative. It doesn’t directly describe that that “something” IS a ghost, but by using the imagery the writer used it makes the reader imagine that it is one. “Coiling upon itself like smoke” definitely creates an image of a ghost, the see through smoke rising and curling. “icy fear that plucked the nerves out of their fleshy covering”, this shows how scared the main character is in the text. It describes his sensation and interpretation of the Swede, which makes the reader feel that “icy fear” as well.

The vocabulary used in this short story is of a very high standard English language. Words such “grubbing”, “driftwood”, “clutching”, “gauze”, “glance”, “quivering”, “acute”, abominably” and so on, are not used in everyday language. The story is definitely aimed at professional literature readers with high vocabulary and understanding skills. The language could be described as the same as the vocabulary, as it is the same thing practically. In other words, the language is not easily understood by all readers.

The two texts compared above are of course about the same topic, ghosts. But here we saw how they were completely different from each other, in terms of audience, purpose, language, vocabulary and so on.