Rhetoric Study

 

~" One day, ran the story, an eagle laid her eggs in a nest far above and far beyond the snakes and paws that hunted them. Her eyes are midnight black and shiny as she watches over them. At the tremble of a leaf, the scent of another life, her frown deepens, her head jerks and her feathers quietly lift. Her talons sharpened on rock; her beak is like the scythe of a war god. She is fierce, protecting her borning young. But the one thing she cannot defend against: the evil thoughts of man. One day a traveler climbs a mountain nearby. He stands at its summit admiring all he sees below him. The turquoise lake, eternal hemlocks, the starlings sailing into clouds cut by rainbow. The traveler laughs at the beauty saying, "This is perfect. This is mine." And the word swells, booming like thunder into valleys, over acres of primrose and mallow. Creatures come out of caves wondering what it means. Mine. Mine. Mine. The shells of the eagles's eggs quiver and one even cracks. The eagle swivels her head to find the source of the starnge, meaningles thunder, the incomprehesible sound. Spotting the traveler, she swoops down to claw away his laugh and his unnatural sound. But the traveler, under attack, raises his stick and strikes her wing with all his strength. Screaming she falls and falls. Over the turquoise lake, beyond the eternal hemlocks, down through the clouds cut by rainbow. Screaming, screaming she is carried away by wind instead of wing.

Then Florens would whisper, 'Where is she now?'

'Still falling,' Lina would answer, 'she is falling forever.'

Florens barely breathes. 'And the eggs?' she asks.

'They hatch alone,' says Lina.

'Do they live?' Florens' whispering is urgent.

'We have, says Lina." (pg. 72-3)

 

Allegory

Simile

Anadiplosis

Repetition

Parallelism

Dialouge

 

 

This whole passage is an allegory, a short story that Lina is telling Florens one night. The sotry obviuosly represents how Lina rrelates her people's story to the invasion of European people. Morrison is able to effectively express the meaning and connection of this story by detailing every ascpect of the eagle and her story. She portraits the naturalness of nature and its perfect order with specfic diction. We feel the disturbance of the white man when she starts to repeat single words (Mine. Mine. Mine.). An intrusion. When interupted by dialouge, the reader feels that they are in the story.