Melodie Beattie: Codependency...

8. What stylistic devices does the writer use to achieve a convincing explanantion?

Enumeration:

People-pleasers

Martyrs

Stoics

Tyrants

Withering vines

Clinging vines

Pinched up faces…

Contrast:

Unlike the alcoholics…. I wasn’t going around….(94f.)

In fact, next to the alcoholics, I looked good…(96f.)

Depreciatory adjectives:

hostile

controlling

manipulative

disagreeable

hateful

Repetition:

..I still found codependents hostile, controlling, manipulative….(entire list of depreciatory adjectives; repeated as single words with explanations: hostile 129, controlling 133)

Alliteration:

Necessary nuisance

People-pleaser

Ready to rescue (15)

Misunderstanding was mutual

Addicts and alcoholics 20

Leading and living their own lives

Crazy codependents 75

Rhetorical question:

“No wonder codependents are so crazy. Who wouldn’t be, after living with the people they’ve lived with?” 167 f.

Quotation (only 2):

➢ l. 49: from a play (just a nice way of saying it)

➢ l. 161 from a book on codependency > another expert > thus an authoritative support for her own ideas/ analysis

Questions (ll. 69ff):

What did codependents need?

What did they want?

Weren’t they just an extension of the alcoholic..?

Why couldn’t they cooperate, instead of always making problems?

Anaphora:

I saw people who….129

I saw people who… 137

I saw people who… 142

I saw hurting….149

I saw victims.. 140

I saw victims… 150