Where Things Come Back Literary Devices

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Where Things Come Back is a story by John Corey Whaley which is compiled of three different points of views from different characters that are all connected. It takes place in different locations, but the main setting of the story is Lily, Arkansas which connects all the characters because for some reason they all come back and end up there. The story starts off with Cullen Witter, the main character of the story, identifying Olso’s, his dead cousin, body. From there we meet his Aunt Julia who is suffering through the stages of grief terribly. Then we meet his family and closest friends. We meet his father who is a driver, his mother who gives haircuts, his brother, Gabriel, who also doubles as one of his closest friends, Lucas who is also …show more content…

For example, he uses first person point of view with Cullen’s part of the story.One piece of evidence that shows this is, “My mother cried on the way home. My little brother, Gabriel, looked anxious, but he kept his headphones on and didn’t say much for the duration of the trip. I drove, but I didn’t want to because I thought it might rain (Whaley,pg.2).” This shows the literary device of first person point of view because it uses words like my and I which are words used to write in the first person. Another example the author uses is allusion. A piece of evidence that can be used to show this is, “Her name was Mena Prescott, and she reminded me of the redhead from The Breakfast Club (Whaley, pg.11).” This is a usage of allusion because the author referenced a famous movie that almost everyone knows to describe someone without going into a lot of detail. Also, this story uses point of view, but in the third person when telling Benton Sage's part of the story. A piece of evidence that shows this is, “ When Benton Sage found out that h-e would be going on a mission for his church that year, he was overwhelmed with excitement and panic (Whaley,pg.16).” This piece of evidence shows that the author used the literary device of third person point of view because it used Benton’s name and him which are all things you do to refer to someone in the third person. One more literary device the author used was foreshadowing. The book states, “ ‘This is the angel Gabriel,’ he said. ‘Do not fear him.’ Just before the boy opened his mouth to speak a large bird flew overhead and landed on the angel’s shoulder. It let out a great call just before the angel Gabriel spoke. He then said, with a great volume and force, ‘Benton, you have been called to bring change to the world. You have found favor in God’s eyes.’ (Whaley, pg.18), “ It was a Thursday when my brother, the Left Hand of God, disappeared(Whaley, pg.55).”

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