In Bone Black the language shifts from short sentences to poetic phrases. Although it might take the reader by surprise, this technique works to add clarity to the events randomly taking place in the memoir. The protagonist begins chapter one in first person, "Mama has given me a quilt from her hope chest (pg1)." Without explicitly stating it, hooks creates time, place and age in this first sentence using only ten words. The reader instantly knows that the scene is a family setting with mother and daughter(s ), the expectation of marriage and generations of traditions handed down both tangible and emotional. Conflict and rebellion against tradition is also establish instantly, "I don't want to be given away (pg 2)."
There are beautiful poetic phrases throughout the book. Those that describe emotion are particularly eloquent and add to the rich language and embedded meaning of the language:
"They tell me that I am lucky to be lighter skinned, not black black, not dark brown, lucky to have hair that is almost straight, otherwise I might no be so lucky (pg 9)."
"They liked seeing that he could feel pressure, that he was not all hard, not all made of concrete
(pg 28)."
hooks use of pronouns to create distance and disassociation between the protagonist and the unfolding, painful events taking place.
All really good comments, Stacy. I think you could go farther, not just with examples, but with the analysis. What does it do to the perspective to have something poetic, if that's your point? etc. Looking forward to more of your ideas.
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I totally agree with you - the narrator uses all/most angles of attack to vividly construct the world of her girlhood; it's as though a narrator in a narrator like this must tap into that childhood perspective while she can, as that perspective takes on an inimitable quality of its own as time goes by. I feel that it's up to the narrator to distinctly delineate those elements that are so unnoticeable to an adult eye. An author's ability to tap into that POV makes me so envious...!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you - the narrator uses all/most angles of attack to vividly construct the world of her girlhood; it's as though a narrator in a narrator like this must tap into that childhood perspective while she can, as that perspective takes on an inimitable quality of its own as time goes by. I feel that it's up to the narrator to distinctly delineate those elements that are so unnoticeable to an adult eye. An author's ability to tap into that POV makes me so envious...!
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