Exercise 1

in the excerpt from Cruddy, Lynda Barry gives her writing a somewhat depressing humor. her atmospheric tone depicts a sense that the world she begins to describe really could be cruddy. throughout the excerpt her style of writing continues to show her world as being depressing or not what she wants it to be. this is even clear in the first few lines; "once upon a cruddy time on a cruddy street on the side of a cruddy hill in the cruddiest part of a crudded-out town in a cruddy state, country, world, solar system, universe." the repetition of this "cruddiness" begins to portray a tone or poetic rhythm that amplifies the sulking mood. it makes the reader feel as though this book will be depressing or maybe even gives them the impression to feel sympathetic for the characters.