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BreAnna Bell

Journal #4

Alliterations, Metaphors, Similes: is it too much?

Throughout the novel, The Coming, Ive found that the author includes so many -

sometimes borderline too many - literary elements. Its done within a short span of time too. The

reader can typically find maybe four to five on each page. It begs the question, how much is too

much? This is not to say that it takes away from the content of the book. Its quite on the

contrary, I still hold that it adds to the content and the story of the novel. However, I just believe

that it may still turn readers away from it. Those who dont necessarily have a grasp on

metaphors and extended metaphors, or alliterations and repetition might see it as too much or

deem it too complicated when the subject matter doesnt necessarily require it.

On page 114, the author tells a metaphor of them being on the ship and he claims that

they created an ensemble of drums and shakers, by banging their chains and cuffs together.

They did this in order to stand in solidarity which, while I understand the point, it just seems a

little redundant because he mentions earlier about other times they had created tunes on the ship

to find some kind of way to speak to one another. The metaphor this second time, while it is still

appreciated, isnt really needed when the point has already been made previously pages ago.

However, on the other side the metaphor on page 115 is still needed because it talks of the hope

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these people still clung to even in sight of their obvious plight and downfalls in captivity on the

bottom of a ship, while covered in feces, vomit, and other bodily fluids. It adds to the strong will

of the people and their willingness to fight even the sadness in their hearts and minds.

I am pleased with the mentioning of how they lost their original names of the Ashanti, the

Yoruba, the Fulani, etc. Not because of the sadness that comes with their cultural imperialist

doctrine that was forced upon them, but because of it shows their creation of a new identity.

Previously, I was taking a black political science course and we read an article where a political

scientist makes the claim that black nationalism stems from the institution of slavery because

they were forced to blend their languages in order to survive, their cultures and their other ways

of living, they essentially created a new cultural identity which became what weve come to

identify with as black. I feel as though if I hadnt taken this class prior to reading this novel,

this fact probably wouldve gone over my head or it wouldnt just been another set of words that

Ive read. After knowing this fact though, I am able to grasp the depth and magnitude of this

paragraph and can recognize it as not only the devastating travesty that their loss of culture is,

but also as the beginning of a new culture that people can be proud of today. It is a shame that

the building of it had to be in this form, but at least there was one beautiful consequence to come

out of such ugliness.