Exposition is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and narration. The purpose of exposition is to inform, the readers about the plot, character, setting, and theme of the essay/story.
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If you did not notice, that was the exposition of this blog post!
Now, I shall attempt to give examples of famous (=.=||) expositions (including the non-fictional ones now). The further you get, the harder it will be to guess the topic of the work.
From the recent Time (April 6, 2009) Essay article by Hannah Beech:
Sometimes the tea was bitter. Other times it was cloyingly sweet with condensed milk. But the whispered questions at teahouses across Burma were always delivered in the same way. Head flick to the right, head flick to the left. A nervous glance backward. No one listening, not even the waiters shuffling up to slosh hot water into our glass tumblers? Good. What did I, as an American who had the good fortune to vote in one of the most exciting presidential races in recent memory, think of Burma's upcoming national elections?
From George Orwell's How the Poor Die:
In the year 1929 I spent several weeks in the Hôpital X, in the fifteenth ARRONDISSEMENT of Paris. The clerks put me through the usual third-degree at the reception desk, and indeed I was kept answering questions for some twenty minutes before they would let me in. If you have ever had to fill up forms in a Latin country you will know the kind of questions I mean. For some days past I had been unequal to translating Reaumur into Fahrenheit, but I know that my temperature was round about 103, and by the end of the interview I had some difficulty in standing on my feet. At my back a resigned little knot of patients, carrying bundles done up in coloured handkerchiefs, waited their turn to be questioned.
From The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (a light novel series by Tanigawa Nagaru):
When did I stop believing in Santa Claus? In truth, this sort of silly question holds no real significance for me. However, if you were to ask me when I stopped believing that the old man wearing the red costume was Santa, then, I can confidently say, "I have never believed in Santa, ever." I knew that the Santa who appeared at my preschool Christmas party was a fraud, and, now that I think about it, every one of my classmates shared the same look of disbelief watching our teacher pretend to be Santa. Although I had never seen mommy kissing Santa Claus, I was already wise enough to be suspicious about the existence of an old man who worked only on Christmas Eve.
However, it took me quite a bit longer to realize that the aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters and espers in those effects-filled 'good guys versus evil organization' cartoons didn't actually exist either. No, wait, I probably did realize, I just didn't want to admit it. Deep inside my heart, I still wanted those aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters, espers and evil organizations to suddenly appear. Compared to this boring, normal life of mine, the world of those flashy shows was much more exciting; I wanted to live in that world, too!
(Ok lets stop the examples here...)---
To end off this increasingly unproductive post, always check E-learning for constant updates. Thank you.
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