ANAPHORA

//A bard who enjoys regaling their audiences with adventurous tales. Anaphora enjoys establishing the same setting for all their stories, reiterating the importance of the beginning of a journey. However, they also enjoy putting twists at the end to draw attention to the impact different endings can have.

// BARD

//In a fight, they’re found empowering

their allies with songs of battle, always

starting with the same confrontation, and writing their own history through lyrics.

“Your intestines may fill up completely with blood. Your eyeballs may also fill with blood. Your eyelids bleed.”
- Richard Preston, Crisis in the Hot Zone

The repetition of “your” while talking about an illness his audience likely does not have and has never had forcefully places a reader at the mercy of the virus, instilling the fear Preston seeks to nurture. The gruesome images he describes become easier and more uneasy to picture when they are directly mentioned as happening to the reader themselves.

“So that, in the moment of your defeat - you'll remember our defeats, and in the moment of your death - you'll remember our deaths.”
-Bob Rafsky, Bury Me Furiously

In this quote, the “moments” belonging personally to “you [George Bush]” are always closely followed by the memory of “our [people dying from AIDS].” The two sets of anaphora used within this quote mimic the intertwined nature of the topic at hand that Rafsky is trying to get across. George Bush cannot detangle himself from his actions and their consequences on those with AIDS.

“Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor–never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.”

-Elie Wisel

The repetition of "indifference" draws attention to this neutral term to expose it to a critical eye as Elie Wisel reveals its bystander effect.

“I would fight without a break. I would fight in front of Amiens. I would fight in Amiens. I would fight behind Amiens. I would fight all the time. I would never surrender.”

-General Ferdinand Foch

The repetition of "I would fight" emphasizes the strength of General Foch's determination. The hypothetical nature of "would" also specifically characterizes this line of thinking as an ideal for others to follow.

“Adventures play out all the time, but the best part’s how it begins! Or maybe even better’s how it ends!”

REFLECTION

Anaphora being a bard felt like an obvious choice. The literary device can be harmonic and focuses on the same beginnings with different endings. This reminded me of all those stories that would start with "once upon a time" but end differently, which led me to the idea of a storyteller, and hence a bard. With the bard class stereotypes, and this thrill for adventure established, Anaphora got to become a very excitable, bubbly character.