Question

Read this passage from "Notes of a Native Son": When [my father] was dead I realized that I had hardly ever spoken to him. When he had been dead a long time I began to wish I had. What rhetorical device is James Baldwin most clearly using in this passage? A. Allusion B. Imagery C. Parallelism D. Metaphor

Answer 1

Answer: C. Parallelism.

Explanation: parallelism is a literary device that consists in the repetition of the grammatical structure of different words or phrases in a sentence or paragraph, in order to emphasize an idea or to create an impact in the audience. In the given passage from "Notes of a Native Son" we can see an example of parallelism, because, as we can see, the speaker starts both sentences with "when" and a verb in past form, and then he uses the pronoun "I" and another verb in past.

Answer 2

The correct answer to your question is A, Allusion. an allusion is a reference to a person, memory, time in history, etc. in this passage the person references his father, which proves that this is in fact an allusion.
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