Hello, Hello, Hello!
Using repetition in my salutation (my opening greeting to you) is annoying, right? It sounds like I am in some cave calling out just to hear an echo. In high school or in some other educational context, you may have been told to not use the first person pronoun, "I" too much. A teacher once told me to not begin too many of my sentences with "I" when I was assigned an essay to write about my family. It would bore my reader she said, and so I changed my beginnings. Instead of "I have a brother who likes to run," I got the same idea across by saying, "My brother likes to run."
However, we discovered today that in the first five sentences of Americanah, the author, Chimimanda Adiche, uses some form of the word, "smell" six times! She is using the literary device of "repetition" to make a point that our sense of "smell" connects us to distinct memories of a person, place or thing (an experience for example). Think about going to the FAIR or to a wedding, or to another event, even a funeral----there may be a particular smell you remember that reminds you of that specific experience---cotton candy, candles, cologne or perfume. As we discussed in class today, memory is connected to smell. We also talked about "diction" (word choice) which is another literary device. The author did not use a synonym for "smell" like possibly "aroma or scent." She stuck with the same word. Why? We thought that she was looking for connection. She was using the word to let us know that "Princeton had no smell." It was unlike other where she associated a smell with something familiar---sun-warmed garbage, musty history, brine. She was telling us that for her, Princeton was unfamiliar and had not associations for her. It could be interpreted as a new beginning, or we could interpret it as sterile--having no content, having no meaning for her.
So today, September 1st, we covered three literary devices: repetition, imagery, and diction (word choice). In your "close reading" of this book, look for those things--ask yourself, "Why did she choose that word?" Or, "Why did she repeat that word?" Or, "What kind of imagery does that bring up for me?" "What picture in my head or what memory is brought up for me through that language in the book?" "What kind of connections are there for me?"
Asking these questions indicate that you are engaging and practicing "close reading." I look forward to more "close reading" together.
Thank you once again for your contribution to our class discussion.
Winona Wynn