Parallelism And Chiasmus Paper

Louise S. Willis
Professor Don Chapman
Elang 325
14 February 2017

Parallelism and Chiasmus
When studying the structure of phrases and clauses within sentences, it is impossible to proceed without a close look at the construct of parallelism or parallel structure. Examples of parallelism are found in literary works as well as in ordinary conversations. (13) In parallelism, the same general structure for multiple parts of a sentence (words, phrases, and/or clauses within a sentence) or for multiple sentences, (26) are repeated in a certain way so that the components of the grammatical structure are the same and provide an alignment of related ideas that support readability, clarity, and balance. (13) The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions such as “and” or “or”. (12) The multiple parts of a sentence or the multiple sentences themselves must contain correct parallel structure in order to link them. (13)
An example might be the
Winston Churchill often used parallel structure in his speeches. Here is a prime example of his use of parallel structure in a sentence: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” Here he is drawing comparisons between the unfairness rife in both socialism and in capitalism, admitting that neither system is perfect. (27)
Another example is from Charles Dickens famous opening to one of his most famous novels, A Tale of Two Cities: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities) What makes it a parallelism is the persistent comparisons on a