Sheila Moss’s point of view in her columns can best be described as humor. In “Home on the Kitchen Range”, Moss uses a slightly annoyed and self-deprecating tone to tell readers about her terrible luck with kitchen appliances, using low diction to help her connect with her readers, repetition, and sarcastic comments inserted with parentheses. In her other column, “I’m a Mosquito Banquet”, she again uses purposeful diction and repetition as well as simile and rhetorical question to complain about the fact that mosquitoes seem to be very attracted to her. She also uses an alternating fact-opinion structure in this column to state a fact or theory about the behavior of mosquitoes or how to repel them, followed by sarcastic, self-deprecating ideas of her own.
Moss’s use of low or funny diction is especially effective in helping her establish a relaxed, self-deprecating tone that allows readers to laugh both with and at her unfortunate circumstances. For instance, she starts off one of her columns with a very conversational voice: “I give up, I tell you. I give up” (“Kitchen Range”). This instantly establishes the author herself as the column’s object of ridicule. In addition, Moss also concludes her column with the same opening sentence; this repetition again reinforces her main idea and indicates her frustration that she has still not reached a solution to her appliance problems by the end of the column. By maintaining low diction throughout the column, using words and phrases such as “coughed up” and “whatever that is” to describe her problems with kitchen appliances, Moss puts readers at ease to join her in mocking her and to not take her comments too seriously. In the other column, “I’m a Mosquito Banquet”, Moss again stays true to the purposeful diction that characterizes her writing style and a self-deprecating tone. Her main problem in this column is that she is “a casserole on the mosquito smorgasbord” (“Mosquito”). A “smorgasbord” is a buffet meal featuring a varied number of dishes. This diction, while not exactly low, is certainly very interesting. It stands out in the column and is also intertwined with a metaphor to help make a point: Moss is extremely popular among mosquitoes, much like a casserole is a popular dish at a buffet. Overall, Moss’s low or unusual diction helps her make her points clear and allows readers to laugh along with her at her misfortunes.
