Nicole Blase March 24th, 2015
Analysis Response Essay Erickson “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses’ by Irwin Shaw is a short story about a couple that argues about how the husband is constantly looking at other women which led to the wife becoming insecure. Throughout the story, Shaw uses many literary devices, including diction, the author’s word choice, to develop her central idea that jealousy can lead to insecurities.
Shaw uses diction a lot throughout the story to show emphasis on the tone of the character and what they're feeling.
The first example demonstrates how the author uses diction to expose the wife’s feelings towards her husband looking at other women is when the wife states ,”Really?” (page 4) This word choice helps show how Frances starts to become insecure about their marriage and has an unsure tone. The next example is when the author states, “Only to me” (page 2) The author uses these few words to show how the wife starts to notice how her husband is interested in other women. The wife doesn’t want her husband engaged in anyone else besides herself and she wants him all to herself. The last example shows how the wife is beginning to notice his actions more regularly and is becoming a habit for him. The wife says, ”the same look.” This diction demonstrates that the wife is picking up when he is observing other women because he does it so often
