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Literary Devices
Definition of Alliteration
Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to... read full definition
Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought... read full definition
Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the... read full definition
Alliteration
Explanation and Analysis—Wash the White Clothes:
Alliteration appears subtly throughout "Girl." For example, the first three instructions in the story contain three sets of repeated sounds:
Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun.
The /w/ sound in “wash” repeats in “white” (and echoes again in the third instruction with “walk”). Similarly, “color clothes” doubles the sharp /k/ sound, and the /d/ sound in “dry” repeats in “don’t,” connecting the third instruction to the first two even as the subject changes. Other examples include “Don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you,” “won’t hold up well after a wash,” and “soak salt fish.”
These alliterations are so minor they feel unconscious; since the story is told in Mother’s speaking voice, they never sound flowery or contrived, like alliteration in a tongue-twister might. Instead, alliteration contributes to the story’s internal rhythm, allowing the instructions to roll rapidly off the tongue. Kincaid also uses anaphora, the repetition of whole words in successive clauses, to this same effect.
The girl’s two interjections also contain alliteration. In her first interruption, she says:
But I don’t sing benna on Sundays…
Then, later, she says:
But what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?
The alliteration of the /b/ sound, introduced with the girl’s interrupting “but,” evokes her stubborn persistence—as it does in the epithet Mother has for her, “the slut you are so bent on becoming.” The girl's attempt to speak up against the onslaught of Mother's instruction reinforces, in Mother's eyes, the inevitability of her disobedience, both sexually and socially.
