Figurative Language In Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father

533 Words3 Pages

In the biography the Life You Imagine Derek Jeter explains his goal to become high school player of the year. Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams From My Father shows the struggle of him connecting with his father and black american culture. Jeter conveys his experiences, challenges, and goals by using cause and effect and an epilogue of what happened after the story's time line. Obama conveys his experiences, challenges, and goals by using figurative language, and including personal anecdotes in his story. First of all, Jeter uses cause and effect to show how he became player of the year. This is shown when he says “I opened up USA Today and saw that they had picked Tyler Houston as player of the year”(62). This is the cause to him becoming envious …show more content…

One strategy he uses is figurative language to more deeply explain the feeling in certain situations. Such as when he explains his family's fight when his father comes home, this could be relaid as a challenge. Obama says “...I felt as if something had cracked open between all of us, goblins rushing out of some sealed off lair...”(71). You can tell that is is figurative language because it is not possible to crack open also when things happen mystical creatures do not come and rush around you. What Brack is really saying is that his family is upset and so many feelings and thoughts are swirling around in all of their heads, and know those thoughts are coming out. He used this strategy to show the problem in more of a dramatic tone. Barack Obama also included personal anecdotes to convey his challenges, experiences, and goals in his memoir. He used this strategy to remember his father, childhood, and find his meaning as a black American. These stories are clearly shown in part one oragants. One story in this selection is when Obama first danced with his father, he explains how it felt when his father and him first bonded. The purpose of using this strategy is to explain the real feelings and thought in that particular part of their