Not Waving but Drowning
...much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning. What we have here is a failure to communicate. This statement has become such a glib cliche that it has almost no meaning. Communication is something the most people take for granted. In the three short sentences of "Not Waving but Drowning" however, Stevie Smith proves the communication is not only one of the most difficult skill, but also it can be essential to a person's very survival. Through language, setting and point of narration, Smith proves that one can die of isolation while apparentently functioning normally within a social community. Smith's diction focuses on the lack of communication in the narrative and her syntax reveals her ability to convey...