The Effect of Using Monologue in Essay Exposition (all My Babies Are Gone Now by Anna Quindlen)

An analysis of the Quindlen’s article, “All My Babies are Gone” shows that monologue is the main literary device that she has used in the exposition of the article. Since this article describes Quindlen’s personal experiences in bringing up her three children, monologue as an exposition too is quite effective in this article; Quindlen uses monologue throughout the essay in communicating her intended message. This paper analysis Quindlen’s use of monologue as an exposition device, the paper gives various examples of how Quindlen has used this device to give her intended views the background information of the experiences that she narrates in her article.

The paper concludes with a concise summary of the main points in the essay. To begin with, Quindlen begins her article by explaining her feelings for successfully bringing up her children into young adults. Quindlen says, “All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today:…”. In this quotation, Quindlen gives a perfect exposition of her feelings through the use of monologue. The exposition of her feelings helps the reader to understand the feelings of Quindlen motivated her to write the essay.

The use of monologue as a literary device helped Quindlen to connect her audience with her background feelings that motivated her to write the article. In explaining the background of her parenting experience and the writers whose ideas influenced how she brought up her children, Quindlen narrates in monologue the many books she read, she says, “Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope leach, T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Spock.”. This quotation is an exposition on how Quindlen learnt parenting skills so as to be able to bring up her children well. In this exposition, Quindlen uses monologue to communicate her message. This, therefore, is another perfect example of how Quindlen uses monologue as a device of exposition in this article.

In discussing the differences between modern parenting skills and traditional parenting skills, Quindlen gives an exposition of the background of the background of parenting methods. Quindlen writes, “When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome”. This exposition is done in form of monologue. The exposition is quite important because it helps the readers to understand the background and the history of the evolution of parenting skills. The use of monologue as a literary device helps Quindlen to make this exposition in a very effective way.

Another example of how Quindlen uses monologue as a device of exposition in this article is when she talks about the need for parents to trust themselves. Quindlen wrtes, “ Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton’s wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active…” In this exposition, Quindlen was unsure of the whether she was bringing up her children in the right way. This uncertainty is what drove her to read widely on the subject of parenting. Despite the extensive readings, however, Quindlen could not get a book that could satisfactorily answer all her questions on parenting. Eventually, despite her uncertainties, the children grew up well into healthy adults. For this reason, Quindlen is advising parents to trust themselves that the skills that they are employing in bringing up their children are effective and will lead to good results.

To pass across this important message, Quindlen makes an exposition of her experiences in upbringing that taught her to trust herself in bringing up her children. Monologue is employed as the literary device to make this exposition. Another instance in which Quindlen makes an exposition through the use of monologue is when she explains how humbling the parenting experience is. Quindlen says, “ Every part of raising children is humbling. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the ‘ Remember-When-Mom-Did’ All of fame. The outburst, the temper tantrums, the bad language-mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover…”.

In this exposition, Quindlen explains, through the use of monologue, the various humbling experiences that she went through in the process of bringing up her children. The main reason why bringing up children is a humbling experience is because of the many mistakes that one is bound to make in the process of bringing up his/her children. Quindlen uses this exposition to shore up her claim that bringing up children is indeed a very humbling experience. The use of monologue in explaining her own humbling experiences in bringing up her children is very effective in communicating the intended message, i.e. bringing up children is a humbling experience. Quindlen, again, makes an exposition, through the use of monologue in explaining the need for parents to live in the moment as they bring up their children. Quindlen says. “ But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in the photographs”.

The main reason of this exposition is to make parents to live in the moment, and to enjoy being with their children as they bring them up. To communicate this important message effectively to her audience, Quindlen makes an exposition of her experiences that taught her to live in the moment. The use of monogue as literary device helped Quindlen to explain her experiences in a very clear way. In conclusion, a critical analysis of this article by Quindlen shows that the main literary device used in the expositions in this article is monologue. The main reason why monologue is used in this article is that, as a literary device, monologue is quite effective in explaining one’s experiences. Since the majority of the expositions used in this article are about explain personal experiences, monologue as literary device, therefore, is the most suitable literary device to make these expositions.