Epigraphs


 * Robyn Goettelman, Kristin Scalzo, Alex Blok**

__Definition__: a short inscription, poem, motto, or a quote at the beginning of a piece of writing or section (chapter). - It suggests a theme for the writing that follows it.

__Examples from the //The Plot Against America//__:
 * The most important example of an epigraph in the book was the very first sentence, "Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear." This sentence suggests the theme of fear right from the very beginning. The reader also now knows that the book is going to revolve around the fearful memories that the characters experienced throughout this particular time in their lives. This sentence also gets the reader thinking about what it is they are about to read throughout the course of the book. It is also good to think about the fact that the author uses this sentence to group all of his memories together, and even if some of them were happy memories, the reader still knows that fear played a huge role in whatever happened to the characters.
 * Another example from the book is the first sentence of the fifth chapter titled, "Never Before." The sentence reads, "Here's how Alvin came to have it in for Sandy." This sentence gets the reader thinking about all of the possible situations that are going to, or could, arise in the coming chapter. First, the reader knows that Sandy has started to gain a different viewpoint on the "Lindbergh situation" and that his opinion is now pretty much opposite of Alvin's. This also foreshadows a possible confrontation between the two characters, which is exactly what happens. Alvin then goes on to find the "forbidden" drawings of Lindbergh that Sandy had hid underneath his bed hoping that no one from his family would ever come to find that they were there, and question his motives.

__Examples outside of the //The Plot Against America//:__

Example of this: "For some reason our lives were marked by summers. . . . Summer was the time when our lives joined completely, when we all had our birthdays, when really important things happened" (p. 5). As you can see, this quote, or epigraph, starts out the book and sets a theme for what is to follow. After reading this, the reader will most likely assume that the book, or at least the chapter, will explore the relationships between the main characters of the book. It foreshadows that their shared experiences together, both from the past and the present, may be explained in the context of what is to come in the future (the part of their lives that we will read about within the chapter). It also suggests the time frame or period, that the book will be taking place in the summer. This example shows that an epigraph at the beginning of a literary work can suggest a lot to the readers and is a usefull tool for writers if they want to really stress something to the readers. Example of this: "Saving Dolphins and Whales, Protecting the Oceans" This motto that is emblazoned on the top of every single page of this website makes it very clear what the website is advocating. A reader that comes across this page will most likely read the epigraph first (as it is in yellow text) and then understand that this website is dictating the necessity for protection of these sea creatures. Because this motto is short and quite blunt about its expectations, readers of this would most likely have no problems with deciphering what its function is. This epigraph was used to be able to effectively describe the intentions of the website in a form that is eye-catching and decisive.
 * The chapters in //The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants// begin with epigraphs.
 * On the website [|BlueVoice.org,] an epigraph sits at the top of every page of this animal welfare organization.