Paragraph analysis in honors student writing

Joseph Roth's short story the Honors Student is about a person named Anton Wanzl. Roth has a specific and extended description of the main character of his story; this description foreshadows the way the story will end. Beginning with the very first paragraph, Wanzl shows in this story that it is possible for one to be content with one's life without actually being happy.

In the first paragraph of the Honors Student, Roth introduces the reader to the subject of the story: Anton Wanzl. The first paragraph of the story stands out because it is made up entirely of the description of Anton. The paragraph does not advance the story per se; it does, however, give the reader a vivid view of the main character, a view that will be necessary to have as the story progresses. The first paragraph is primarily made up of simple sentences. For example, Roth says that, "All Anton did was study. He studied from morning till late at night" (Roth).The simplicity of the sentences should make the paragraph easier to read, but the vocabulary Roth employs negates this potential ease.

Roth's text is carefully crafted and edited to make sure that the correct mood is displayed, and that there are no mistakes. For example, Roth writes that Anton's face, "was surmounted by an extremely sparse tuft of white blond hair" (Roth). The use of such large words to describe something so simple as a man's face is another type of description. Roth could not write this description using simple vocabulary because it would not fit in with the type of character that Anton is.

Through the method he employs to capture Anton, Roth says as much through the words he does not use as he does through the words he uses. Roth describes Anton as a person who never gets into fights, plays or steals apples from his neighbors. "Anton Wenzl was always neatly dressed and in clean clothes. Not a speck of dust on his jacket, no hole, however tiny, in his stockings, no mark or scar on his smooth, pallid face" (Roth). Anton is careful to have neat-looking books and to write neatly in and on them. What Reid does not say is that Anton is a good person, or even that he is happy. This gaping hole in the description of Anton foreshadows the revelation that Anton is in fact not a good person or a happy person.