Quarter 3: Week 7, Post A

VOCAB:

dun-colored (350): having a dull, gloomy, grayish-brown color
duplicity (363): deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:

1. "Wanting to fire back You're the one who left, do you miss us?" (322). This is an example of figurative language because Nikki refers to "firing" a question back at Clare, when literally questions aren't "fired". Her word choice is used to show the accusatory nature of the question.
2. "...with rice-paper skin..." (323). This is an example of figurative language too. A metaphor is used to compare Aunt Tabitha's skin to rice paper because it is so thin and translucent.
3. "Mom's cheery teapot and matching mugs..." (348). This is an example of personification because a teapot can not have feelings. It can not be "cheery", this is a human characteristic.


QUOTE:

"I was stunned to see him: the man who, long ago when he'd been a boy, my mother had loved. The man who'd impregnated my mother. Might have married her, if he'd wished to" (371). This quote is interesting because it shows the new information Nikki has gathered about her mother's life from people after her death. Her mom's best girlhood friend, Alyce Proxmire, told Nikki the story of her mother's first serious boyfriend who got her pregnant, but she had a miscarriage only a month into the unexpected pregnancy. This is just one of the stories she hears, and all of them give her new perspective on her mother. Nikki wishes she would've gotten to know her mother's past better when she was still alive.

THEME:

The overall theme of the novel was definitely the struggles along the journey of grief in the aftermath of the death of a loved one.