Close Reading (11/18)

Goodbye to My Twinkie Days

By:  Bich Minh Nguyen

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/goodbye-to-my-twinkie-days.html?_r=0

As the Hostess cake company goes out of business, Bich Minh Nguyen writes about how Twinkies are a part of our past, and how they are a symbol of American assimilation.  Nguyen uses the Hostess cake company to evaluate and to symbolize America where it is headed in the future.  To help convey the meaning of the piece, Nguyen uses techniques such as diction, details, and syntax.

Nguyen’s use of diction helps the reader see the good and the bad in the company and the cakes, which then can be applied to America as a whole. When Nguyen uses the word demise to describe how the Hostess cake company has long been going out of business he implies it is due to unions.  The word demise has a connotation of something failing by corrupt means, thus implying that unions are the “corrupt means” which have caused the downfall of America.  Again when Nguyen uses the word relic to describe Twinkies, it is as if he is saying that unions are a relic of America because they have been around for so long.  Although Twinkies look good on the outside, and so do unions, they both have a downside.  Twinkies are unhealthy while some consider unions to perform unjust practices.  Through the use of diction Nguyen explores how Twinkies have been apart of our culture for decades, and through this he questions the practices of unions in America.

The second literary technique is the use of details that describe the unhealthiness of a Twinkie, and possibly unions.  Nguyen describes Twinkies’ smell to be “sugary, fake, buttery-ish vanilla…” while they are made of “partially hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, [and] high fructose corn syrup…” From the aforementioned analysis of how Twinkies smell good on the outside yet inside they are filled with chemicals applies to these two quotes.  Although a union seems to be good as they help workers achieve safer working conditions and higher wages, some would say that they hinder the productivity of the workplace and the company’s ability to be profitable.  Similarly Twinkies are delicious to eat but once in our body they are harmful because of the chemicals from which they are made.  Again as Twinkies are described as being processed and fake, the reader applies this description to unions and subsequently questions the good in unions.

Syntax is used to emphasis key points about the Twinkie, which is used to symbolize unions.  Nguyen writes, “’Junk food’ is a phrase at once grotesque and appealing.  We know it’s bad, and that’s why we want it.”’  Nguyen separates these two sentences to emphasize how Twinkies (unions) are good and bad at the same time.  He further explains that American’s accept the paradox of wanting Twinkies (unions) while recognizing they are bad.  Through the separation of these sentences the reader is forced to acknowledge the paradox and is confronted with the incompatibility of theses two concepts and forced to consider them anew. The second sentence causes the reader to ponder whether or not keeping unions in America is beneficial or a detrimental for our country. 

These three literary techniques are used to describe the loss of the Hostess cake company that has been apart of our culture for decades.   However, the literary techniques are also used to question whether or not unions are harmful to America.