Each and every writer has their own unique style to writing. Individual writing style is a distinguishing trait amongst writers, much like each human has a different fingerprint. No two styles are exactly the same, however some are close. Edward Abbey and Meriwether Lewis are two writers whose works are distinguishable. In Edward Abbey’s The Great American Desert and Meriwether Lewis’s Journals Of Lewis and Clark, both authors express their enthusiasm towards nature and make the reader want to go explore the land which they talk about. However, the style of how they express this overall theme is what contrasts their writing. Edward Abbey uses an incredibly powerful tool in his essay which sets him apart from most of nature writers; he uses verbal irony. Abbey’s essay The Great American Desert makes the reader want to go out and explore the desert by the completion of reading this. The tone of this essay was extremely enthusiastic, which was conveyed by Abbey’s strong diction and humorous tone. Abbey establishes this humor in the voice of his essay with verbal irony and making negative …show more content…
I find it hard to judge. They’re all bad—not half bad but all bad.” Quotations like this creates the humorous tone that really sets Abbey apart from other writers. Other writers, much like Meriwether Lewis, would never think to put this type of humor and utter sarcasm in one of their works. A few rhetorical questions much like, “And which of these deserts is the worst?” are examples of how irony can really excite and engage the reader. Abbey continue on in his essay with many examples of verbal irony as his main stylistic tool in portraying the theme of you should not come to the desert. Meanwhile the actual theme of the essay is you should go to the desert. This is written much like when someone tells you not to do something and now you suddenly feel the urge to go do whatever it is that they told you not