24 pages • 48 minutes read
Anna QuindlenA Quilt of a Country
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Allusion
Content Warning: This section references terrorism.
Various types of allusion—references to well-known people, events, works of art, etc.—appear throughout the essay. Quindlen crams three into one sentence: “The Brooklyn of Francie Nolan’s famous tree, the Newark of which Portnoy complained, even the uninflected WASP suburbs of Cheever’s characters: they are ghettos, pure and simple” (3). By citing these works of American literature, Quindlen aims to dispel the notion that ethnic divisions are anything new; rather, they are well-documented in the US literary canon. Quindlen also conjures the patriotic and ubiquitous song “America the Beautiful” as she cites the verse “crown thy good with brotherhood” (2), inviting the reader to determine whether the United States has lived up to its ideal of universal “brotherhood.” Her opening paragraph references the US motto, “Out of many, one,” to lay the groundwork for her discussion of Multiculturalism in the United States, which examines the nature of that “one.”
Read through the lens of the present, it could also be said that the essay employs historical allusion, as there is no explicit mention of the events of 9/11 until the last paragraph. Instead, Quindlen references the attack through phrases like “this moment [of] enormous tragedy” (2), or “at times like this” (8). While the author’s motivation for writing this piece would have been apparent at the time (just over two weeks after the attack), it now requires prior knowledge of the essay’s historical context to be fully understood.
Metaphor
The quilt is the central metaphor of this piece, introduced in the title and explained in the first paragraph. “Built of bits and pieces that seem discordant” (1), the quilt functions both as a metaphor for the cultural plurality of the United States and as a symbol of American culture, belonging to its folk-art tradition. Just as the US comprises many distinct ethnic and religious groups, the different textures and colors of the “velvet and calico and checks and brocades” make up one vibrant and diverse whole (1). Similarly, “mongrel” is a term the author uses to open and close the essay—a metaphor that also represents the cultural plurality of the United States. In this case, the image evokes a United States that is a blend of different ethnicities and cultures rather than a patchwork of wholly distinct ones.
Oxymoron and Paradox
Quindlen uses several phrases that on the surface appear to be contradictory, but upon deeper reflection encapsulate her central arguments. Some examples include: “this splintered whole” (4), “impossibly interwoven” (4), and “fractured coalescing” (7). All three oxymorons—pairings of apparently opposing words—use descriptive language to communicate the idea of a heterogenous, diverse, and sometimes conflicting country, which nevertheless also exists as one interdependent and fused entity.
These expressions exemplify the overall tension characterizing this essay—between conflict and unity, and failure and success as a nation—that must ultimately arrive at a synthesis. Quindlen thus uses oxymorons to explicate the broader paradoxes of her argument. Though similar to oxymorons, paradoxes join together seemingly opposing ideas (rather than merely words). As Quindlen describes it, the US is itself paradoxical in nature.
Rhetorical Question
Quindlen employs this rhetorical device five times throughout the essay, raising questions without providing clear answers. This device promotes active readership, inviting the reader to complete the dialogue. When she asks, “Do the Cambodians and the Mexicans in California coexist less easily today than did the Irish and Italians of Massachusetts a century ago?” (3), she immediately engages with the reader further, saying “You know the answer” (3). In this case, the essay presents a straightforward yes/no question, and readers can infer that the answer they are expected to give is “no,” thus aiding the author to demonstrate her point. In another example, the answer is less straightforward: “What is the point of this splintered whole?” (4). Quindlen repeats “What is the point […]?” three more times in the same paragraph, underscoring the question’s importance while also suggesting its persistence (i.e., the difficulty of answering it). As the essay continues, there are some hints to help readers resolve this question, at least partially.
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By Anna Quindlen
