A Raisin In The Sun Literary Devices

681 Words2 Pages

Everyone goes through dark times whether it’s something big or trivial. But even when things seem bad, there’s always a silver-lining. Paton uses literary devices to develop this theme in the scene where the main character, Stephen Kumalo, is in his hometown of Ndotsheni and is visited by Arthur Jarvis’ son. This scene starts with Kumalo internally voicing his concerns for the wellbeing of Ndotsheni. He makes it clear how bad the conditions are. Then, Arthur’s son visits, a ray of light in Kumalo’s otherwise dark world. In this first part, Paton enforces the idea that the town of Ndotsheni is truly in unfortunate circumstances by using literary devices, such as personification. When Kumalo is pondering Ndotsheni’s condition, he says that “his spirit was depressed, hope flagging in the lifeless heat” (Paton 267). It’s as if the town’s, including Kumalo’s, reservoir of hope is as low as their water supply. Kumalo is used to represent, not only himself, but the entire town in this scene, the burdens he carries weighing him down. Tone is used throughout this scene to first give a sense of despair and then give a sense of hope, which establishes the dark times and then the silver-lining. In the beginning, words like “depressed” and “lifeless” are used to describe various things like Kumalo’s spirit and the air (Paton …show more content…

In this scene, the boy himself is an allusion. He is supposed to be what the young, youthful Arthur Jarvis was like, alluding to the resurrection of Christ. It’s like Arthur has come back to life through his son in almost the same way that Christ was raised from the dead except Arthur’s resurrection is figurative while Christ’s is not. When the boy greets Kumalo, it says the he “smiled at Kumalo and raised his cap and said, good morning” (Paton 277). The boy acts brightly and joyfully in everything he does, curiosity filling his small body to the brim. The boy is the silver-lining in Kumalo’s

Open Document