Roads to Quoz

    Roads to Quoz is a short story about a couple going into a grocery store and eating sandwiches. The perspective is from the narrator himself, showing the way he views the place they are in and all of the things around him. ‘Joe’s Country Store’ is the main setting of the text. The language of the text is written formally. The author forms the short story by using paragraphs made up of long and short sentences. The first paragraph is the largest, speaking on the setting the narrator is in and what type of people they see. The other three paragraphs are about the same size, all a little smaller than the first. Most of the sentences are average length. For example, ‘We went into Little Lanesboro to Joe’s Country Store’ is the shortest sentence of the entire story. The author also includes a lot of lists. This can be shown with the second paragraph only being two very long sentences. The first also includes a list of the ingredients of the sandwich the narrator is making. 

    The text also shifts in tenses. The first two paragraphs are speaking in the past tense, stating words like ‘went’ and ‘had’. The third paragraph then begins with someone speaking. Not only does this introduce a new character, but it brings the tense more into the present. The text is written in the first person using words like ‘my’ and ‘me’ and ‘I’. When referring to the language of the text, the author includes an abundance of description to make the reader see what is being described. For example, the author states ‘old village-grocery’ to make the readers imagine their view of a local grocery store. 

    The author also includes lots of extra details. In the first paragraph, the narrator is describing a ‘meat-and-cheese counter’ with a ‘slant-front glass case’. While doing this, the author is also adding the details of the type of people around him and putting names on these types of people. The author states ‘Bert’ and ‘Betty or their granddaughter’ to allow readers to feel more connected with the setting. This continues on with the narrator's description of the different names of types of sandwiches used by people around the world. The author includes ‘western Pennsylvania’ and their name being ‘zeppelin’. The author uses lists to emphasize the main point of the story being the parts of a sandwich.

    More description can be found in the third paragraph when characters are introduced. The author includes ‘blurry snapshots’ and ‘yellowed news clippings’ to emphasize the main theme of the story being an old, homey village. The final paragraph introduces ‘Q’, the writer's nickname for his wife. This has a way of wrapping up the story as the author states ‘finished our hoagies’. 

    The writer begins by presenting himself with another person. The first sentence states ‘We went’, showing that the writer is with another person or multiple people. This shows the form of the text being written in the first person. The writer also presents himself as an observant person. This is shown with a great amount of detail and description within the text. He clearly takes note of the feeling of every situation and who is around him. The author shows this by the descriptive words ‘old’ and ‘institution’ to describe the setting of the story, being a grocery store.  The author also uses a plentiful amount of description to list the people near him and not near him. He uses the location words ‘Northeast’, ‘western Pennsylvania’, and ‘eastern corner’. The author also uses stereotypes of people to create the scene. He makes up the names ‘Bert’, ‘Betty’, and ‘Patricia’ to show how the writer sees the people around him. All of these show that the author is a very observant and detailed person, even with simple things. 

    The language the author uses to present himself is formal. While there is a little dialogue in the third paragraph, being spoken from what seems to be one of the locals from the village, the author never shows any of his own dialogue. This may be used to show that he is more of a quiet person who keeps to himself, but is always aware of the things around him. The author then talks about a girl named Sarah who sits down by him and his wife. It is stated that she is showing them a video. Her mom ‘rolled pizza dough’ while the video of ‘Old Man Susquehanna’ is being viewed by the writer. This all goes to show the story of going to the grocery store to get a sandwich. The simple plot is heavily described by the writer, making the story have a very personal feel.