Face to face with hurricane Camille
“Face to face with hurricane Camille” is a piece of narration . According to chronological order,this article describes the heroic struggle of the Koshaks and their friends against the forces of a devastating hurricane. In spite of the radio and television warnings of hurricane on Aug. 17，John Koshak Jr. was unwilling to abandon his home in Gulfport, Mississippi and flee inland . He had consulted his parents and hisfriend Charlie and they all agreed that they would be safe here. Hence that afternoon,they began to make full preparations for the hurricane. A neighbor and her two children joined them.However,they had underestimated the ferocity of Hurricane Camille ,which attacked the Gulf Coast severely.Then wind began rising, and rain fell steadily. When the wind mounted to an overwhelming roar,the house began leaking and shaking. The Koshaks started a struggle against the spreading water. Then the power failed.The ceiling in the living room was falling piece andpiece. Doors burst open and windows disintegrated. The spreading water rose above their ankles，and it was rising by the minute. Charlie was terrified to find the water tasting salty and shouted to John.They know the sea had reached the house ,and t
he water was rising by minute.Johnyelled to everyone to go out to the cars, which, however,would not start, for the electrical system was killed. As the water was too deep and the wind too strong to flee on foot, they scrambled back to the house and settled on the stairs. Watching the water rising and lapping at the steps, John felt a crushing guilt. After the roof blew off the house，they moved to their bedroom upstairs in the slashing rain. With two walls beginning to disintegrate, John ordered the others to go to the television room，which was farthest from the direction of the storm. The wind tore down one wall. A second wall moved. The house had moved 25 feet from its foundations. The world seemed to be breaking a- part. Everyone was in a panic. When a third wall gave way, John grabbed a door and prepared to get the kids on it. Just at that terrifying moment，the wind slightly diminished, and the water stopped rising.Fortunately,the main thrust of Camille had passed and the Koshaks and their friends had survived. After the hurricane,aids from all over the country came to the disaster area .The Koshaks quickly began reorganizing their lives. In spite of the fact that they have lost almost all their possessions，they were happy to come through it，just as Grandma Koshak later reflected：“When I think of that, I realize we lost nothing important.”
The whole article plot is compact,fast rhythm,let a person to read full of tension.It’s concerned with action and it centers on people,the characters, engaged in some kind of conflict against other people ,nature,society or in an inner struggle against themselves.In this article,the Koshaks is the protagonist,and the Hurricane Camille is the antagonist.The whole essay focus on the conflict between them.The paras.1-6 of this story are introductory  , giving  the  setting  of  the  story — the time,place,characters,reasons,preparations and background information of the conflict. The writer builds up and sustains the suspense in the story and gives order and logical movement to the sequence of happenings by describing in detail ,and vividly,showing how the Koshaks and their friends strive to survive the hurricane.The article use many elliptical sentences,short sentences and simple sentences,especially in the process of narration hurricane outbursts. 
Short simple sentences:
“Rain fell steadily that afternoon; gray clouds scudded in from the Gulf on the rising wind. The family had an early supper.”(para.6)
“It grew dark before seven o'clock. Wind and rain now whipped the house.”(para.7)
“It’s bound to end soon.”(para.15)
“Get us through this mess,will you?”(para.17)
“Let’s get that mattress up!”(para.25)
Elliptical sentences:
“Everybody out the back door to the cars!”(para.10)
“Back to the house!”(para.11)
“Everybody on the stairs!” (para .12)
“Up the stairs—into our bedroom!Count the kids.”(para.21)
“Into the television room!’(para.22)
By using so many elliptical and short simple sentences,the writer tries to display how tense the atmosphere becomes as the hurricane strikes at the house and how decisive and determined the protagonist appears when facing the disaster.The author skillfully use verbs,especially, select a few brief one-syllable words .For example: lash，whip，kill, smash, fling, shove, skim, seize，lap，crack，snap and so on. The power of the hurricane vivid displayed in front of the readers. Rhetorically , the  using  of metaphor,simile,personification transferred epithet and onomatopoeia enhance the vividness of language.
Metaphor : “We can batten down and ride it out,”
“Along the Gulf Coast it devastated everything in its swath”
pines“Spooky flew off the top of a sliding bookcase and also disappeared.”
“household and medical supplies streamed in by plane , train,and car.”
Simile:  “The children went from adult to adult like buckets in a fire brigade.”
“The wind sounded like the roar of a train passing a few yards away.”
“Telephone poles and 20-inch-thick pines cracked like guns as the winds snapped them.”
“blown-down power lines coiled like black spaghetti over the roads.”
Transferred epithet: “Several vacationers at the luxurious Richelieu Apartments there held a hurricane party to watch the storm from their spectacular vantage point.”
Personification:“A moment later,the hurricane, in one mighty swipe,
lifted the entire roof off the house and skimmed it 40
feet through the air.”
“It seized a 600,000-gallon Gulfport oil tank and
dumped it 3 1/2 miles away.”
Onomatopoeia:“Telephone poles and 20-inch-thick pines cracked
like guns as the winds snapped them.”
“Face to face with Hurricane Camille”is ainspiring article that told
us a truth—human lives not material possessions are import.What we
should cherish is our life and our families and friends.Though stronger
the nature are than us,we can unite ourselves and survived the
catastrophe.
For me ,my difficulty in study the text is that I am lack of the stock of
words and phrases.What’s more,the unfamiliar with rhetorical devices
is the obstacle in my study .

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