Jacinto1 Justin Jacinto February 15, 2012 Period 3 Mrs.

Napier Rhetorical Strategies in Girl In her short story Girl, Jamaica Kincaid displays a strong use of rhetorical strategies to convey her message. The most obvious and effective is parallelism. Kincaid begins most of her sentences in the beginning with Do or Do not, and later on, most of the sentences begin with This is how. Kincaid achieves few different effects by utilizing this rhetorical strategy. First off, it catches the readers attention, and makes the passage much more interesting to read. Secondly, it helps to get her point across. Kincaid wants to instill in the reader what it takes to be a good woman, and by repeating a similar sentence structure, the audience is much more likely to understand and remember what they have read. Lastly, the repeated beginning of each sentence creates a sort of build up throughout the story, as the reader wonders where Kincaids advice will lead in effect, an extended periodic sentence. This keeps the reader interested, as the story finally climaxes in the last sentence. Through her expert use of rhetorical strategies, Jamaica Kincaid successfully keeps her readers interested while simultaneously engraving the message she attempts to convey.