Finding your purpose in life can be the hardest thing to do for many people. Especially when your entire family is finding the meaning of their own life and creating the world they want for themselves. In the novel, Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her life as a young black girl growing up with two problems she’s facing. She is living during a time of segregation against black people, and she doesn’t know what her identity is. She finds throughout the story that she has a love for words and writing. Jacqueline uses figurative language, symbolism, and inner thinking to give the theme of your identity can be found in what you are passionate about.
In the beginning, Jacqueline uses figurative language to show her anger towards the fact that she cannot write and read like her sister can. For example, Jackie’s unhappiness when she can’t write well like other people shows when she says, “ / I am not gifted. When I read, the words twist/twirl across the page / When they settle, it is too late. /The class has already moved on / ”
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She gets that satisfaction from writing in this notebook she has. She finally understands what words are and mean to her. Jacqueline uses symbolism to show that she has knows how words represent her and are a big part of her. After class when Jackie is able to tell an entire story from memory, she realizes, “/ And I know now / words are my Tingalayo. Words are my brilliance /” (248). This action is symbolism because the author outwardly makes words represent her “brilliance”. It’s her talent, it’s what she is a master at. The author says that words are her “Tingalayo” comparing words to her brothers’ talent of singing when he sang the song Tingalayo. This comparison gives Jackie a purpose and talent like her family has. She always loved words and had a passion for them, and now she’s decided that words should become a part of her
"She smiles and points to one. ' A very lovely piece of music. I like it.'" perceives that she had a dream and although it may never come true, it gives her happiness. Also, readers learn that she has tired legs, swollen ankles, blisters and has no socks.
Onomatopoeia adds to the meaning behind metaphors and are used at the end of the 1st and 2nd stanzas, “Buzz. Click”/ “Zing. Tinkle.” These noises are giving the sounds that a secretary appliance would make. I thought not only was she an object, but a machine which is being used and controlled.
According to Roman Jakobson, “In poetic language, in which the sign as such takes on an autonomous value, this sound symbolism becomes an actual factor and creates a sort of accompaniment to the signified literature.” This quote portrays the meaning that symbolism is the poetic and creative use of elements, such as objects and words to portray the critical details and intrinsic meaning in a piece of literature. In essence, think of yourself a pristine art gallery and you are observing an inspiring, captivating, beautiful portrait, and you see an impeccable phoenix. Although, you capture this perspective someone else may interpret the portrayal of hope and immortality. Moreover, the story Pink and Say, authored by Patricia Polacco offers a superfluity of examples of symbolism that completely adds a definition of meaning to the text in terms of the main characters and plot.
Jackie French uses a high level of language throughout the novel to go from past to present and create a clear image in the readers mind of the characters and what time was like decades ago. The author, French uses certain language techniques such as a clear plot, character contrasts and figurative language to help to tell the story of Martins journey and how he gains an appreciation of
The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, a woman who dreamt of love, was on a journey to establish her voice and shape her own identity. She lived with Nanny, her grandmother, in a community inhabited by black and white people. This community only served as an antagonist to Janie, because she did not fit into the society in any respect. Race played a large factor in Janie being an outcast, because she was black, but had lighter skin than all other black people due to having a Caucasian ancestry.
Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives.
In William’s narrative essay, “Why I Write” she informs a wide range of metaphors of why she writes and how she feels about it. To begin with, she expresses herself by using the metaphor “I write with a knife carving each word from the generosity of trees”. ( William’s 7). With this intention, She is comparing carving to writing and when she says “ generosity of trees ” she means the paper that she uses to write on comes from the generous trees. William’s feels a sense of joy whenever she writes and she thanks the trees for that.
The novel When She Woke by Hillary Jordan is about a 26-year-old girl named Hannah, who is trying to earn her life back so that it is normal, but who really knows what normal is anymore and who gets to say when you reach it. Hannah has committed the crime of murder for abortion, to match the crime she committed her skin has been changed to red. Nevertheless, in Hannah 's society, your punishment is having everyone know what you did considering the colour of your skin represents your crime. Flipping her life around Hannah must fight for everything she wants, including the love of her family, but mostly her mother. Hannah is a red, a murderer, Kayla is another red and one of Hannah 's only friends.
In the except from the novel “ Under the feet of Jesus” by Helena Maria Viramontes shows the development of Estrella from being angry to understanding what she needed to do to succeed. The author uses figurative language and selection of detail to show the changes Estrella’s character went through, which reveals that knowing what things are is beneficial. The author uses figurative language like similes and metaphors to show Estrella’s frustration with her teacher and her understanding of tools. The author says, “ all that a jumbled steel inside the box… seemed as confusing and foreign as the alphabet she could not decipher.”
Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. In Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson uses literary devices to help the reader better understand Melinda’s personal changes and growth. Trees, lips, and coldness are all symbolically used to represent the changes of Melinda. Throughout the novel, trees play a big part in symbolizing Melinda. Melinda is constantly drawing and relating to trees in the book.
Naylor discusses how language is the subject of her writing, and although the written word is what has kept her going throughout her life she still feels that the written word is inferior to the spoken word. Her arguments in the introduction of her writing are clear and easily understood. She is portraying just how powerful she feels the spoken word can be. Naylor states, "Dialogue achieves its power in the dynamics of a fleeting moment of sight, sound, smell and touch. "
She portrayed these phrases with an unusual amount of significance and utilizes anecdotes and juxtaposition to emphasize the importance of naming things. She shows how the way things are
An author’s choice of diction is crucial to the understanding and effectiveness of a book. Diction creates a chain affect: in the end it creates mood which then leads to the formation of the author’s overall tone. In the book Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider, the author decides to use advanced level vocabulary mixed with regular everyday language in an attempt to imitate two very advanced level teenagers. Diction will always create emotion within the book. The quote “At Latham House, we were asked to believe in unlikely miracles.
At first she refers to him as “it”, but once she realizes there is no barrier to communication her comfort level increases. Nancy Kress uses one of David Seed’s themes: language to show how it can comfort us. Seed states, “When novelists began to address the problem of other languages, they tended to draw on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that our worldview is shaped by our language and also to show how language could be caught up in power play. ”(Seed 44)
In Annabel lee by Edgar Allen Poe the use of his tone words has an overall effect of the mood. He uses all of these connotative tone words to show the loving tone it has. The connotative words he uses are very deep and passionate words about his love to Annabel Lee. Edgar said that she loved him and he loved her. That they thought about nothing else but to love and be loved by one another.