More Literary Terms

Euphemish- "A week later my uncle passed away" (209). Using Passed away instead of died is an example of a euphemism.

Imagery- "My hands became to tremble and my migranes came back with a vengance" (123) Using details to make the image real for the reader.

Understatement- "I told the nurse that I couldn't feel the pain of the gunshot wound" (160) Ishmael is using a understatement; of course getting shot made him feel pain and he just wanted to go back to the house.

Onomatopoeia- "the guns went off next to my head... all i heard was pop pop pop" (65) Beah uses an onomatopoeia to prove how loud the gunshots were when Beah ran into rebel forces.

Hyperbole- This is often used in books and in life because exaggeration is a part of our speech, but in this story Ishamel had it so bad that a lot of his stories were THAT bad. But I was able to find some examples. The first example is, "The general was yelling so loud, my eardrums almost popped" (89) this occured right when Ishamel was taken out of the RUF and into the sheltered town.

Another Hyperbole occured when Junior said that his legs were going to fall off from all the running they were doing. This is a very extreme exaggeration.

Diction- Ishmael has a unique style of writing, what he does is periodically insert Krio which is the unofficial, official language of Sierra Leone. This serves to remind the reader where he is coming from and to not americanize the story. I.E "In between Gasemu's gasps, he told us that there was a wahlee nearby. And at the bottom margin it explains that a wahlee is a place outside the village where goods are processed.