Friday, September 26, 2014

I, Moroni

I decided to look at language, and more specifically the usage of the first-person pronoun (“I” “me”) and the repeated usage of a specific phase and individual(“my father”). Within my section (Mormon 8 – Ether 8) I focused my analysis on Mormon 8:1-14.



Moroni that is now writing in the record uses the pronoun I, me total of 26 times in just about one page. Then he references his father Mormon, by repeating the phrase “my father” ten times.

The thing most obvious by this is that Mormon is no longer writing, but instead Moroni is. Moroni is alone. He didn’t turn the Book of Mormon into his own personal journal by choice, but it was thrust upon him, plus he is being responsible and finishing what his father left for him to do. Also his father obvious played a hugely important role in his life, he he is the only one of the many many Nephites that were killed that he mentions specifically and repeatedly. He is obviously lonely, as I’m sure anyone in his position would feel also. This magnifies the massive scope of the destruction of the people of Nephi. He literally had no living mortal in the Americas that he could interact with that would try to kill him.

For the most part the Book of Mormon is a third person narrative given by Mormon. Which other sections outside of 1 Nephi are also written in the first person? Since the usage of the pronoun I can only be used by some one actually inscribing on the place, how many authors wrote on the plates? Are there any other sections where the language used in referencing characters also does so this much to establish the setting?

1 comment:

  1. I can imagine Moroni mourning both the loss of his father and the loss of his people simultaneously, and how hard this must be on him. Just think of how someone might be looking around their father's house after their death thinking "there's where my father always sat, there's his picture on the wall, there's the table he made with his bare hands...". It must be excruciating. But his responsibility to finish this record is also no less important than it is right now, for his final testimony is the final capstone to the tragedy (and miracle) that is the Book of Mormon.

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