Exercise 1

Lynda Barry's dissonant and grating tone in her novel "Cruddy," foreshadows a dark story yet to come for the young, immature protagonist, Roberta Rohbeson. As she spends her time "writing the cruddy book of her cruddy life," Roberta displays childish acts that can only belong to a juvenile, self-centered child. Living in "the cruddiest part of a crudded-out town," the stressed out child spurts random phases of anger. Bold colloquial language is also evident and suggests an atonal tone the author feels towards writing. Barry's low diction, which includes a repetition of the word "cruddy," along with Roberta's bipolar attitude verifies the hardships Roberta is going through as a hormonal adolescent in the midst of punishment.