The Negro Speaks Of Rivers Figurative Language

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"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser," said John W. Gardner. Life in my opinion is all about experiences, and retelling experiences is the best way to keep the memory alive as long as possible. Many writers have different ways that they want to share they're stories, and they all use different ways and techniques to do it. Some of the Harlem Renaissance poems like "Harlem" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" seem like they have more to do with experiences and use figurative language to express what they're thinking. On the other hand, the Post Modern stories and longer and give more description of their own experiences. There also is a large difference in the figurative language used in each, along with poetic devices, and subject material, and it can affect the way that the information is understood or can change the way that it affects the reader. …show more content…
Harlem uses similes throughout both poems, while even though both poems are short. For example, in the beginning lines of the poem, Hughes questions, "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun," (Hughes 1). This is the beginning of the short poem, and he has incorporated figurative language already. On the other hand, in the story "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall", symbolism is used to create a mental picture of an underlying darkness in the story. For example, in the quote, "Her bones felt loose, and floated around in her skin" (Porter, 712), this shows that her body is starting to fail, because she is not able to control the bones and muscles in her body. She is lying in her bed, unaware or unwilling to acknowledge what her daughter and the younger nurse are trying to tell her that she is