A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails

Donald Hall, American writer, recounts the life of Washington Woodward in A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails. Donald Hall writes that he, “knew Washington well, yet [his] image of [Washington] was a mixture of what [he] had observed and what [his] grandfather had told [him]” (253). The honesty in his statement shows that his ethos may not entirely be credible as he is not recounting the story entirely from his personal experience. However, it does not affect the point of the essay as the purpose has more to do with the story than with the reality of the story. The essay discusses waste and ironically tells a story of a man who spends his whole life trying not to waste anything, but essentially ruins his life itself by his self-isolation. After Washington passes away Hall explains that the shack that he built “has caved in and his straightened nails have rusted into the dirt of Ragged Mountain; though the rocks stay where he moved them, no one knows how they got there” (262). All of the things that Washington lived for withered away into waste. The author wants to use the story of Washington to show how one should not isolate themselves as it will waste their life. One must utilize the essay to realize how they should use their life to have some sort of benefit on others’ lives, and not to pass away with only rotting things to be remembered by. A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails, written for those who have the potential to waste their life, uses irony very well. Hall writes that Washington “saved the nails because it was a sin to allow good materials to go to waste” (257). The nails eventually were wasted as they rusted without anyone after his death to care for them. Another rhetorical device that Hall uses well is narration, it is the majority of the essay. It encompasses his purpose very well as it is entertaining, but also has a moral at the end. I think the author accomplished his purpose because he did effectively use the life of Washington as an example of how one can accidentally waste their life.

Picture:

Caption: A life is wasted once one chooses to isolate themselves.

Picture source: http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/johnshore/files/2013/08/alone-in-a-crowd.jpg