Are both of these sentences parallelism/parallel structure? Please explain each of the choices.

Question

A. To wander about like vagabonds from land to land, to rob the poor, to betray the confiding, to murder in cold blood the defenseless.

B. I am king in my own land, and will never become the vassal of a mortal like myself.

My teacher said both of these sentences have parallel structure, but I don’t get how is the second sentence has the parallel structure. I mean there is the word “and,” but both halves of the sentence does not have the same style. Is my teacher correct or I am correct? Please help by explaining it clearly.

Answer 1

Hi, Camilla. Parallelism can be a bit hard to understand, but that is not the actual problem here.

Line A has four parallel phrases which could be subjects or objects, but it is not a complete sentence as it has no verb. A similar incomplete sentence: "To crunch crisp apples, to walk quickly, to breath the cool air, to smell bonfires." See how this just lists things but doesn't express a complete thought? This would be complete if written with the subject and verb (in bold): "To enjoy autumn is to crunch crisp apples, to walk..."

Your line A is from https://www.indianvoices.net/19-black-indian/427-acuera-of-the-timucua-people-speaks and serves as a series of answers to the question "What is your employment?" A complete sentence in parallel structure could be "My employment is to wander..., to rob..., to betray..., and to murder..." Do you see how each of the four parts begins with "to" followed by a verb? Each of these is an infinitive form, like "to eat." That matching structure makes them parallel, though not a complete sentence.

Line B is almost parallel in that the first has a subject "I" followed by a verb "am" and the second has an IMPLIED subject (unstated "I") followed by the verb phrase "will become."

The grammatical problem is that the comma and coordinating conjunction "and" must be followed by an independent clause (meaning it has both a subject and a verb). Written correctly (and in parallel structure), this should have an "I" after the conjunction: "I am king in my own land, and I will never become the vassal..." OR "I am king in my own land and will never become the vassal..." Note that the second version removes the comma and creates a correct series of two things that "I" (1) am and (2) will become. The bold parts in the two versions are parallel with each other. Similar sentences: "I eat green grapes, but I will never eat purple grapes," OR "I eat green grapes but will never eat purple grapes."

If you need help figuring out other aspects of our sometimes confusing language, let me know!

Michael "Professor D."