Style Model Analysis

L’Épée de Damocles (Vehicular Manslaughter)

 • The surface culture component of the Iceberg View of Culture addressed in this memoir is how the stalker considers this action a game. She thinks of it as a competition with herself that she has to beat.

 • The deep culture components of the Iceberg View of Culture addressed in this memoir are the broken rules of conduct. It is not socially acceptable to stalk another person in this manner.

 • The turning point of the memoir is when Roxanne’s tone goes from that of stalking for love to stalking for murder. The memoir takes a dark turn near the end which is primarily why it is an entertaining one to read. If the story had not taken a turn for the violent, it would not be interesting.

 • The author shows he or she has changed after the turning point by admitting that she would run him over in her car. Although this point is at the end, there was no mention of harm earlier in the memoir. The only thought from the narrator was of general obsession.

 • A paragraph that demonstrates what I like about the authors writing style is: My eyes haven’t changed. My lips haven’t changed. If he remembered me, would he admit it or would he pretend he didn’t to try to feel me out, figure out my endgame? I wonder how long I would sit there. I wonder how long I could sit there. I wonder if I would tell him what I became, what I made of myself, what I made of myself despite him. I wonder if he would care, if it would matter. If I were in the same city as this man, following him in a car with dark, tinted windows, I wonder what I would do. I tend to drive with a heavy foot.

 • The devices the writer uses to create meaning in this excerpt is mostly figurative language and a quite a lot of rhetorical questions; all of the questions asked by the narrator open a door for the reader into the writer's head. They show the thought process of an insane stalker. They show how the obsession grows over time.

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