Literary Devices
What literary device can be found in the following quote:
"I am too sleepy to tell her that Greenville is home./That even in the wintertime, the crickets/ sing us to sleep" (137).
personification
What poetic device can be found in the following lines?
"My father arrives on a night bus, his hat in his hands"(35)
alliteration (H)
What theme do the lines below convey? Explain.
"We pray for my grandfather/ ask God to spare him even though / he's a nonbeliever. We ask that Jehovah look/ into his heart, see/ the goodness there" (124).
Answers will vary.
Example: Family
While Jackie's grandfather does believe in God, he does not follow the Jehovah's Witness faith. Jackie's religious family prays for him while he is sick, but they worry that he will not be saved as a "nonbeliever." These strict religious rules are part of why Jackie begins to doubt the Jehovah's Witness faith. Jackie loves her grandfather more than anyone, and cannot believe that he would not go to heaven when he died, just because he was not a Witness. Jackie's love for her family is more important to her than anything else in her life.
Explain Odella's influence on Jackie, as evidenced by the lines below.
"Will the words end, I ask / whenever I remember to. / Nope, my sister says, all of five years old now, / and promising me // infinity" (63)
side note: notice the use of rhyme along with stanza break! ("promising me // infinity")
Odella reads to Jackie, and later helps her learn to read and write. She exposes Jackie early to words and stories, and has a significant impact on Jackie developing her love for reading and writing. Odella helps Jackie learn to read, and shows her that with reading, there are infinite possibilities.
What literary device is the following quote an example of?
"Her coffee is sweetened with condensed milk,/her hair pulled back into a braid,/her dark fingers circling her cup./If I ask, she will hold it to my lips,/let me taste the bittersweet of it" (95)
imagery
Find an example of internal rhyme in the following lines:
"only Colored folks / come home to Nicholtown. / Here, you can't look right or left or up or down / without seeing brown people. / Colored Town. Brown Town. Even a few mean words / to say where we live" (54).
Brown Town
How does the quote below connect to the theme of identity?
"She is gifted / we are told. / And I imagine presents surrounding her.// 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" (169).
Answers will vary.
Example: Jackie's sister Odella is intelligent, learns quickly, and excels in school. Even though Jackie is also intelligent, she learns differently and has a harder time showing her intelligence in school. At this point, she doesn't realize she is smart because she hasn't received the praise and accolades her sister has, and she has trouble keeping up in class. Odella's success makes Jackie feel less-than, until she finally learns that she is equally intelligent, but in her own way.
"no one knew/ my big brother could sing. He is dressed/as a shepherd, his voice/ soft and low, more sure than any sound I've ever heard/come out of him. My quiet big brother/ who only speaks/when asked" (232).
Jackie learns that Hope can express himself through singing. She is used to him being quiet and introspective, and is shocked when she sees him on stage. This makes her realize that maybe everyone has their own kind of hidden brilliance. She has doubts about her own abilities a a learner, and this gives her hope that maybe there is a brilliance hidden inside her, waiting to be discovered.
What literary device can be found below?
“In Montgomery, only seven years have passed/since Rosa Parks refused/to give up/her seat on a city bus” (3)
allusion
Name two poetic devices that can be found in the following lines:
“And my fathers sisters whispered “ (6)
onomatopoeia / consonance / slant rhyme
In this excerpt, Jackie's grandmother is braiding her hair, while Jackie listens to Odella read.
What theme is conveyed in the following lines? Explain.
"As my sister reads, the pictures begin forming / as though someone has turned on a television.../ My sister's clear soft voice opens up the world to me, / I lean in/ so hungry for it. // Hold still now, my grandmother warns. / So I sit on my hands to keep my mind /off my hurting head, and my whole body still./ But the rest of me is already leaving, / the rest of me is already gone" (84-85).
Answers will vary.
Example: writing/words/stories
Jackie has trouble learning to read, but when she is read to, she absorbs the stories and is able to imagine them vividly in her head. She is "hungry" for the words and stories that she knows can take her anywhere and teach her anything. Words and stories can transport her, and she is ready to travel with any story.
"[Hope] / with his searching--and Dell with her reading/ and even Roman with his trying to eat/ to the other wise of our walls--is looking/for something. Something way past Brooklyn./ Something/out/there." (187)
What is Jackie looking for?
Answers will vary.
Example:
Jackie wants reading to carry her out of Brooklyn, and she wants to send her own stories out into the world. She talks about wanting to make sure her memories and stories live on forever, almost as their own entities traveling from person to person.
Explain the symbol that can be found below.
"On a clean white page in my composition notebook,/I know/ if I wanted to/I could write anything” (156).
The blank page symbolizes her potential, and every story she wants to share with the world. The blankness of it, however, suggests that she does have trouble communicating her stories to the page.
Find an example of assonance in the following stanza:
"My father arrives on a night bus, his hat in his hands./ It is May now and the rain is coming down. / Later with the end of this rain/ will come the sweet smell of honeysuckle but for now,/there is only the sky opening and my father's tears. / I'm sorry, he whispers." (35)
It is May now and the rain is coming down. / Later with the end of this rain/
What theme is conveyed in the poem below?
"ghosts"
"In downtown Greenville, / they painted over the WHITE ONLY signs, / except on the bathroom doors, / they didn't use a lot of paint / so you can still see the words, right there / like a ghost standing in front / still keeping you out" (92)
Answers will vary.
Example: segregation, racism
Even though segregation was legally lifted, and public places were required to paint over signs and be open to any race, things did not change immediately. The laws were frequently not enforced, and the "ghosts" of what were the laws remain both in people's minds, and physically in the signs that are not quite painted over. Jackie realizes that racism and segregation still haunt Greenville, and still make her feel like she is not welcome everywhere.
"I imagine my uncle doing his smooth/ dance steps down the wide road,/...pulling presents for us from his bag, thick gold/ bracelet flashing at his wrist./ Where'd you get this? my mother asked, her face tight./ It doesn't matter, my uncle answered. Y'all know I love you." (265)
Jackie has been supported and encouraged by her uncle in her writing, and she loves him. She struggles to combine what she knows of her uncle with the fact that he has been doing illegal things and was arrested. She knows him as happy, dancing, and gift-giving, but realizes that even someone she loves can choose to do the wrong thing.
What TWO literary devices are present in the quote below?
“Maybe that’s where/ there is money falling from the sky/ diamonds speckling on the sidewalks.” (142)
There is more than one correct answer:
hyperbole, imagery,
consonance (poetic device)
What is the effect of the ellipsis in the following lines?
"When I write the first words / Wings of a butterfly whisper... // no one believes a whole book could ever come / from something as simple as / butterflies" (249)
These are the first words of Jackie's poem, so the rest of the poem continues from there. Even more significantly, these words are the first of her first book, which opens up the world of writing to her. She has endless writing potential and endless stories ahead of her.
What theme is conveyed by the lines below?
"Now Hope stays mostly quiet / unless asked to speak, his head bent / inside the superhero comic books my grandfather / brings home on Fridays. Hope searches for himself / inside their pages. Leaves them / dog-eared by Monday morning. // The South / his mortal enemy,/ The South, / his Kryptonite." (64-65).
Answers will vary.
Example: home
Hope struggles the most with his transition from Ohio to Greenville. As the oldest child, he has the most memories of his father, and misses him. He also has horrible allergies in the South, meaning his new home is difficult for him physically, in addition to emotionally. Hope tries to escape through comic book stories, but the challenges of living in the South have made him quiet and withdrawn.
Use the lines below to explain the impact Jackie's grandfather had on her. Be specific in referencing this excerpt!
"Sometimes, my grandfather says,/ Sing me something pretty./And when I sing to him, I'm not/ just left of the key or right of the tune/He says I sing beautifully. // He says I am perfect" (235-236)
Unlike other members of Jackie's family, Gunnar has always seen Jackie as perfect just the way she is. He doesn't accuse her of singing off key, like Odella does, or belittle her writing dreams. Everyone needs someone in life who is this unconditionally supportive, and at the time of this poem, Jackie's grandfather is very close to death. She is about to lose this constant approval in her life, but the confidence he gave her will remain.