Sarah's Key Figurative Language Essay

Tatiana de Rosnay used different literary tools to assist her writing in order to deepen the story, including figurative language, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing. The use of figurative language helps to clarify a description in order to place an image in the mind of the reader. Similes are the main type of figurative language used throughout Sarah’s Key, allowing the reader to see what is happening. Many images conjured up make comparisons as a child would make them, as much of the story concerns the innocence of a child, such as “[t]he oversized radiators were black with dirt, as scaly as a reptile” (Rosnay 10) and “[t]he bathtub has claws” (Rosnay 11). Other descriptions compare Sarah, and Zoe, to a puppy, a symbol of innocence, as children are known to be

An example of this is in Julia’s story, where Guillaume is sharing information on his grandmother. “She began to hear about the camps. She began to understand that they were all dead. That no one would come back. Nobody had really known before. But then, with survivors returning and telling their stories, everybody knew” (Rosnay 49). Later, on page 55, Sarah, along with the other French Jews, are being taken from the Velodrome d’Hiver, leading her to have hope that they may be going home at last, that this was the end of their imprisonment. Having a background on the era, as well as Guillaume’s information, the audience is already aware that Sarah is having false hope. As the novel continues, Sarah escapes Drancy and makes it to a farm where she is taken in and cared for. When Julia begins to question the fate of Sarah, she asks “Had Sarah been with them after all? Had she left Drancy for Auschwitz terrified and lonely in a cattle wagon full of strangers?” (Rosnay 135), which the reader already knows did not