Close Reading “Damn, Scoop,” I say, a little scared. “What? You thought I was playing? You think it’s a game?”
We hear police sirens searching in the distance. “Just don’t get caught with that.” Amir says. “Rather be caught with it than without it. Rather go to jail than die young” (Asante 96).
This quote involves three important characters: Malo, Scoop, and Amir. Malo is the main character. Amir is Malo’s best friend, and Scoop is a good friend of Malo’s older brother Uzi. At this point in the book, both Amir and Malo are fourteen, while Scoop on the other hand is about eighteen. Malo has been hanging around Scoop and all of the older guys since his brother was sent to Arizona due to the fact that he has been acting out and
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The both of them are so simple but they carry a lot of meaning. Let us start with the parallel structure and anaphora that is presented within the last line in this quote. Parallel structure is used to create rhythm and balance throughout sentences and often used to emphasize a powerful point. Which is important to keep in mind when remembering which words are in this parallel structure. The anaphora that is used is not an overwhelming amount but it does the job. Anaphora is when certain words or phrases are used repetitively in the beginning of sentences that are all near each other. The effect of anaphora is similar to that of the effect that parallel structure has when it comes to the balance of what is said. However, anaphora can appeal to the emotions and evoke inspiration and motivation out of the listeners, it is almost an artistic way of speaking. Scoop says he would rather do this as than that, and he would rather do that than this. The repetition of the word ‘rather’ makes these two statements much stronger. When thinking of the two grammatical devices applied to the last line in the quote one would not think that they belong together due to the artistry in the syntax compared to the actual conversational words and what the reader thinks the character initially means when he says