The Sweater

The hockey sweater, loyalty One of Quebec’s leading writers Roch Carrier, in his short story, “The hockey sweater”, tells of a boy’s loyalty to a Montreal Canadians hockey player Maurice Richards. Carrier’s idea is to deliver a theme of loyalty by establishing a sentimental tone in order to appeal similar feelings or experiences in his audience. Carrier begins by acknowledging the desire the young boy and his friends have to be exactly the same as there hockey idol.
He writes “We all wore the same uniform as he, red, white and blue uniform of the Montreal Canadians, the best hockey team in the world; we all combed our hair in the same style as Maurice Richards” and “you’ll never put it in my head to wear a Toronto Maple leafs sweater”. Carrier describes the boys loyalty using everyday diction to allow for an array of audiences to be entertained. Shifting to Carriers outstanding use of punctuation he directs the reader’s attention to the words that follow by using colons.
For example “with tears in my eyes, I found the strength to say: I’ll never wear that uniform”. Carrier is able to support his them of loyalty with his use of complex-compound sentences like: “Wearing my Toronto maple leafs sweater i went to the church, where I prayed to God, I asked him to send, as quickly as possible, moths that would eat up my Toronto maple leafs sweater”. In conclusion, Carrier’s strategy of neutral diction, passionate tone, complex-compound sentences and punctuation, Carrier is able to support his them of loyalty throughout his short story.