Practice Diction Analysis

In the excerpt from Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine, Baker’s business like figurative language characterizes the refined workplace which he describes. Baker describes the escalators themselves that rise to his office, “They were the free-standing kind: a pair of integral sins swooping upward between the two floors they served without struts or piers to bear any intermediate weight.” The careful diction used to describe the setting escalates an image in the readers mind. In addition, the escalators portray a controlled environment as the sun only shined in the “needly area” of the escalators. Although the escalators suggest a controlled and stiff environment the author recommends a rather welcoming and straightforward environment.