The following rhetorical strategies are some examples of rhetorical strategies that Walls uses to develop her story and purpose:
· Historical allusion- “…like that dago fellow Columbus claimed America for Queen Isabella,” (Walls, 40).
· Simile- “…eyes wide like a hunted animal’s,” (Walls, 43).
· Irony- “I was in the first grade…four Mexican girls followed me home and jumped me,” (Walls, 44).
· Situational Irony- “A big green Dumpster stood in the parking lot. When no one was looking, Brian and I pushed open the lid, climbed up, and dived inside,” (Walls, 110). Ironic to the shame Jeanette felt when her mom had done the same thing in the future, in the beginning of the novel.
Throughout the novel, Jeanette avoids much flowery diction, which reveals a great deal of figurative language and rhetorical strategies. However, the story builds with irony to better reveal how the characters in the novel are trying their best. This irony illustrates how people’s situation changes and their actions regarding those situations can be very much alike and very different, an example being the dumpster diving. When necessary, Jeanette participated in the event, however, later on in her life, her mother partaking in the same action when faced with the same hunger shamed Jeanette.
The irony that you found in the novel was similar to my findings. While Jeannette and her siblings grow up in poverty, their parents seem to be well off enough to satisfy themselves. Although in the beginning of the novel, Jeannette witnesses her mother searching the trash bins of New York City for food, something she was once guilty of, by then, the Walls children are well nourished and living comfortably, like their parents had years before. The story begins with the children beneath their parents in health and quality of life and ends just the opposite.
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