CHAPTER IV

THE COMMITED STYLE

Style has been defined in a variety of ways by scholars working in areas
related to rhetoric and composition. According to Oxford Advanced Learners’
Dictionary of Current English, the 7 th edition, style is the art, the manner or
aesthetics, the particular use by the writers of the language. Style has been
discussed in terms of classical rhetorical devices and amplification of discourse, as
the manipulation of punctuation and syntax for rhetorical effect, as risk and
deviation from norms, and as voice and authenticity. Some definitions are precise,
such as Louise Phelps’s definition, given during a personal interview with Paul
Butler, as “the deployment of linguistic resources in written discourse to express
and create meaning” (Diaspora, p.7). Other definitions are vague, such as
Jonathon Swift’s motto, “proper words in proper places.” (A Rhetoric of Style, p.2).

In fact, all along this chapter, we aim at examining some aspects of style
used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order to depict aspects related to factors and
consequences that push Darling to search for an Eldorado. In this regard, our
main concern is to answer the following subsidiary question: What is the style
used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order to depicts factors and consequences of
Darling’s search for an Eldorado in We Need New Names? I hypothesize that
Noviolet Bulawayo’s style is determined by her choice of words, arrangement of
those words into sentence patterns, figures of speech. This means that in this
chapter, I first examine the diction, then the sentence patterns, and finally, I
explore the key figures of speech used in the novel.
I- Diction

The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English, the 7 th

edition, defines diction as the choice of words or phrases to carry a meaning. A
word can carry different meanings, that is why scholars have divided meanings
into two categories which are: Denotative meaning which refers to the literal,
dictionary definition of a word. And Connotative meaning which means the
implied or suggested meaning attached to a word, or the emotional “tag" that
goes along with a word. As a matter of fact, while reading Noviolet Bulawayo’s
We Need New Names one understands that the authoress has chosen specific
words and phrases which carry a connotative meaning in order to express causes
and consequences of Darling’s search for an Eldorado. About causes, many
words and expressions have been chosen by Noviolet Bulawayo to depicts factors
that have push Darling to search for an Eldorado. In the passage “I’m blazing out
of this kaka country myself” (We Need New names, p.13). One notices the use of
the expression “Kaka country”; which has the connotation of unpleasant
country. Its connotation describes a country which deprives from hope and steps
change. Darling and her friends could not even imagine to live in that “kaka
country”. Another word used by Noviolet Bulawayo is “Shacks” uses in the
following passage “Getting out of Paradise is not so hard since the mothers are
busy […]. They just glance at us when we file past the shacks and then look away.”
(We Need New names, p.1). The use of the word “Shacks” by Bulawayo has the
connotation of roughly built hut. She uses that to explain the social condition of
Darling and her friends.
 Another tangible words and expressions used by Noviolet Bulawayo in We
need New Names to depicts causes that push Darling to search for an Eldorado
are “Bulldozer” as evidenced in the following passage:

In my dream, which is not a dream-dream because it is also the truth that

happened, the bulldozers appear boiling. […] big and yellow and terrible
and metal teeth and spinning dust. I hear the adults saying, Why why why,
what have we done, what have we done? […] The bulldozers start
bulldozing and bulldozing and we are screaming and screaming. (We Need
New Names, p.65)

From the above passage, the word “Bulldozers” connotes mores such as
dictatorship and mismanagement of power which destruct people’s lives and
trigger Darling to search for an Eldorado. Further, one notices the use of the
expression “country-country” as seen through the following the passage:

But first we have to fight over the names because everybody wants to be
certain countries, like everybody wants to be the U.S.A and Britain and
Canada and Australia and Switzerland and France and Italy and Sweden
and Germany and Russian and Greece and them. These are the country-
country. If you lose the fight, then you just have to settle for countries like
Dubai and South Africa […]. Nobody wants to be rags countries like Congo,
like Somalia, like Iraq […], and nit even this one we live in- who wants to be
a terrible place of hunger and things falling apart? (We Need New Names,
p.49)

From that passage, one understands that the expression “country-country” is

chosen by the authoress to express about powerful nations or countries. Which
attract young Africans because of the better conditions of life gather there. That
attraction is changed into a desire of living their homeland to the country-country,
hoping to experience the better life.
 However, words and expressions used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order to
depict consequences of Darling’s search for an Eldorado are listed as the
following: “Coldness” taken from this following paragraph

What you will see if you come from here where I am standing is the snow.
[…] It is a greedy monster too, the snow, because just look how it has
swallowed everything; […]. As for the coldness, I have never seen it like
this. I mean coldness that makes like it wants to kill you, like it’s telling
you, with its snow, that you should go back to where you come from. (We
Need New Names, p.148)

One understands from that passage that the world “coldness” is used to express
an enemy; no one could prevent Darling about that enemy which tells her to get
back to where she came from. Further, the expression “unwanted job” from the
following passage “And when at work they asked for our papers, we scurried like
startled hens and flocked to unwanted job” (We Need New Names, p.243). depicts
the situation experienced by migrants without paper but who wants to get a job
in order to suit their needs. They wished of being rich, having great jobs but the
reality shows the difference.

II- Sentence patterns

According to The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English,

the 7th edition, a sentence is the combination of words to create various different
rhythmical effects to complete the meaning and the purpose if your writing. Many
sentences are used by Noviolet Bulawayo in her novel We Need New Names in
order to depicts Darling search for an Eldorado. We have: declarative sentences,
interrogative sentences and exclamative sentences.
II-1-Declarative sentences
In literature, a declarative sentence is a sentence that carries a mood or
expresses the truth. In fact, in Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names,
declarative sentences are used by the authoress to give characters the voice of
denouncing mores and evils of the society. Within her book, Noviolet Bulawayo
has painted two societies, the African society and the American one. The narrator,
known as Darling thought of a great and happy life in the American society. That
desire of leaving her country started the way things are going on her country, in
which the injustice reigns. She lives in a country divided in two parts; the rich part
named “Budapest” and the poor one named “Paradise”. Because of poverty,
Darling and her friends go to Budapest to steal for guavas to ease their anger. As
evidenced: “We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows
and Sbho and Stina and me […]. There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right
now I’d rather die for guavas. We didn’t eat this morning and my stomach feels
like somebody just took a shovel and dug everything out.” (We Need New Names,
p.1). This words testify the hardship that Darling and her friend bath in their own
country. Due to the injustice, dictatorship and mismanagement of power. Due to
all those endurance, they argue: “Better a white thief does that to you than your
own black brother. Better a wretched white thief.” (We Need New Names, p.72)
From that declaration, one understands the masses are complaining about the
evil done by their own black brothers. They could understand if it were the white
man who did but not their own brothers.
 Further, because of all those mores, people start to leave the country,
hoping of a better future in another country. Darling move to the United States of
America, where she hopes to find her Eldorado. Although, even if people decided
to leave, the place where they went was not a paradise at all. In fact, they are
disappointed by the reality in front of them, once they entered the new land.
Darling always thought that America was an Eldorado, Darling left out some
details when she talked to her friends back home, in order not to show America
was not her America she thought. In this connection, Bulawayo has used some
declarative sentences to illustrate it, as it is evidenced on page 188:

I didn’t tell them how in the summer nights there sometimes was the
bung-bung-bung of gunshots in the neighbourhood and I had to stay
indoors, afraid to go out, and how one time a woman a few houses from
ours drowned her children in bathtub, all four of them, how there were
poor people who lived on the streets, holding up signs to beg for money. I
left out these things, and a lot more, because they embarrassed me,
because they made America not feel like My America, the one I had always
dreamed of back in paradise.

This declaration confirms that Darling was disillusioned, as many other persons
were. Yet, Bulawayo resorts to other sentences such as interrogative sentences.

II-2-Interrogative sentences

Defined as a type of a sentence in which a question is requested; many

Africans writers use the integrative sentences to denounce or criticized and
making comparison between two countries.
 In fact, Noviolet Bulawayo uses the interrogative sentences in her novel We
Need New Names to denounce the evils done by the government, pretended to
work for the population. The narrator presents through question the
disappointment of the population done by their own government. As the narrator
explains on the following passage: “What, but aren’t you a pauper now? Aren’t
these black people evil for bulldozing your home and leaving and leaving you with
nothing?” (We Need New Names, p.75). We understand from that words that
people are questioning first about their social status; and about those who made
them pauper. They could not imagine how their own government could ill-treat
them. The solution for everyone is hoping to find an Eldorado out of the country.
Darling believes in better future out of her country, and because people don’t
know about their tomorrow in foreign lands, Noviolet Bulawayo takes a fancy to
this fact in when Bastard asked Darling about America, wondering what if it really
was or as a manner to prevent Darling from leaving, because America was not
America, because America was just a deception. The following interrogation, on
page 14, is very well-expressed: “What if you get there and find it’s a kaka place
and get stuck and can’t come back?”

Further, Darling migrates to the United States of America, believing in a

better future. In the American soil, Darling experienced that even by deciding to
leave, people are not always at ease in their Eldorado. As evidenced through the
following interrogation:

When they debated what to do with illegals, we stopped breathing,

stopped laughing, stopped everything, and listened. We heard: exporting
America, broken borders, war on the middle class, invasion, deportation,
illegals, illegals, illegals. We bit our tongues till we tasted blood, sat tensely
 on one butt cheek, afraid to sit on both because how can you sit when you
don’t know about your tomorrow? (We Need New Names, p. 242)

These words prove that because they are most of the time illegal migrants and
they worry every time and about everything.

The exploration of Noviolet Bulawayo’s novel We Need New Names has

shown that the issues around immigration also appears in the figures of speech.

III- Figures of speech

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English,
th
the 7 edition, a figure of speech is an intentional deviation from ordinary
language, chosen to produce a rhetorical effect. When exploring Noviolet
Bulawayo’s We Need New Names, different rhetorical effects have been used
such as figure of comparison like similie, figure of opposition like irony. In fact, all
those figures are used by Noviolet Bulawayo to denounce the evils done by the
African leaders and trigger people to migrate in other countries searching for the
Eldorado.

III-1- Similie
This a figure of speech used to compare one quality of two things that are
basically different explicitly, using like or as. Within her novel, Noviolet Bulawayo
uses that figure of speech to depict the injustice that we always observe in African
society; which is the division of social classes and even worse, the division of
everything; rich people divide from poor people. Bulawayo paints a country with
the rich part called Budapest and the poor part called Paradise. The following
statement on the page 12 is very explicit: “Budapest is not a kaka toilet for
anybody to just walk in, it’s not like Paradise.” One clearly understands that the
narrator compares the two parts of her country, by praising the rich part,
reserved for special people because it is not a place for anybody to just walk in.

Further, on page 4, the narrator adds: “This place is not like Paradise, it’s
like being in a different country altogether. A nice country where people who are
not like us live.” We absolutely understand that the narrator is from the poor part
called Paradise; by comparing Paradise to Budapest, Noviolet Bulawayo shows
that Paradise is a place where people suffer different forms of problems. Indeed,
Paradise is a rural area where life is very difficult, whereas Budapest is a real
paradise, because life is very easy and people live in good conditions.

Her attraction to that rich part, urges her to migrate in the United States
of America, where she believed to be her Eldorado. Darling experience in the
America was not what she had always expected. She believed on a beautiful
country, a country where everything and all dreams are possible; but she was
disillusioned by many things like the weather. This passage on the page 150 tells
evidence “With all of this snow, with the sun not there, with the cold and
dreariness, this place doesn’t look like my America, doesn’t even look real. It is like
we are in a terrible story […].” These wording testify the comparison made by
Darling between what she thought to be a nice place and a place that she doesn’t
even know. Darling hopes to be in an Eldorado but the reality shows to her
another vision, another place.

Although, similie is not the only figure of speech used by Noviolet

Bulawayo in her novel We Need New Names, we also have the figure of
opposition called irony.
III-2-Irony

It is a figure of opposition that refers to a statement that, when taken in

context, may actually mean something different from, or the opposite of, what is
written. That figure of speech is observed in Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New
Names, in the first part of the novel named HITTING BUDAPEST. The authoress
uses the words “Paradise” as a contempt because a “Paradise” is supposed to be
a very pleasant place. The authoress uses that to describes a part of a shanty two
where poor people live and hope to escape it; search a real Paradise.

Within the novel, Paradise is the place where people went after their
houses were destroyed by the government; as the narrator argues

We didn’t live in this tin, though. Before, we had a home and everything
and we were happy. It was a real house made of bricks, with a kitchen,
sitting room, and two bedrooms. Real walls, real windows, real floors, and
real doors and areal shower and a real taps and real running water and
real toilet you could sit on and do whatever you wanted to do. We had real
sofas and real beds and real tables and a real TV and real clothes.
Everything real. (We Need New Names, pp.62-63)

These words testify that none of them have chosen to live in Paradise, it is due
to the injustice and the mismanagement of power. We also understand that
Darling had everything before being forced to live in paradise; a place totally
different from her ancient place.

Paradise, is according to the authoress a place where people live in shacks

and suffer, lacking everything. Furthermore, on page 34, the narrator adds:
“Paradise is all tin and stretches out in the sun like a wet sheepskin nailed on the
ground to dry; the shacks are the muddy color of dirty puddles after the rains. The
shacks themselves are terrible […].” Here, we get the perfect opposition because
the word “Paradise” mean totally different from what it seems to mean; a very
pleasant place.

To conclude this chapter, I can say that Noviolet Bulawayo uses particular
elements of style to depicts causes and consequences of Darling’s search for an
Eldorado. Through her choice of words, arrangement of those words into
sentence patterns, figures of speech in her novel, Noviolet Bulawayo voices out
the inequalities and injustices existing in our societies and succeeds in conveying
significant and relevant message on immigration. That way of writing is what
provides the reader with a direct answer to the subsidiary question put in the
introduction of the chapter: What is the style used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order
to depicts factors and consequences of Darling’s search for an Eldorado in We
Need New Names? I have attempted to answer this interrogation by first
examining the diction which is the choice of words by the authoress. Then, I have
tried to study the sentence patterns used by the authoress and the key figures of
speech used in the novel.

CHAPTER IV

THE COMMITED STYLE

Style has been defined in a variety of ways by scholars working in areas
related to rhetoric and composition. According to Oxford Advanced Learners’
Dictionary of Current English, the 7 th edition, style is the art, the manner or
aesthetics, the particular use by the writers of the language. Style has been
discussed in terms of classical rhetorical devices and amplification of discourse, as
the manipulation of punctuation and syntax for rhetorical effect, as risk and
deviation from norms, and as voice and authenticity. Some definitions are precise,
such as Louise Phelps’s definition, given during a personal interview with Paul
Butler, as “the deployment of linguistic resources in written discourse to express
and create meaning” (Diaspora, p.7). Other definitions are vague, such as
Jonathon Swift’s motto, “proper words in proper places.” (A Rhetoric of Style, p.2).

In fact, all along this chapter, we aim at examining some aspects of style
used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order to depict aspects related to factors and
consequences that push Darling to search for an Eldorado. In this regard, our
main concern is to answer the following subsidiary question: What is the style
used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order to depicts factors and consequences of
Darling’s search for an Eldorado in We Need New Names? I hypothesize that
Noviolet Bulawayo’s style is determined by her choice of words, arrangement of
those words into sentence patterns, figures of speech. This means that in this
chapter, I first examine the diction, then the sentence patterns, and finally, I
explore the key figures of speech used in the novel.

I- Diction

The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English, the 7 th

edition, defines diction as the choice of words or phrases to carry a meaning. A
word can carry different meanings, that is why scholars have divided meanings
into two categories which are: Denotative meaning which refers to the literal,
dictionary definition of a word. And Connotative meaning which means the
implied or suggested meaning attached to a word, or the emotional “tag" that
goes along with a word. As a matter of fact, while reading Noviolet Bulawayo’s
We Need New Names one understands that the authoress has chosen specific
words and phrases which carry a connotative meaning in order to express causes
and consequences of Darling’s search for an Eldorado. About causes, many
words and expressions have been chosen by Noviolet Bulawayo to depicts factors
that have push Darling to search for an Eldorado. In the passage “I’m blazing out
of this kaka country myself” (We Need New names, p.13). One notices the use of
the expression “Kaka country”; which has the connotation of unpleasant
country. Its connotation describes a country which deprives from hope and steps
change. Darling and her friends could not even imagine to live in that “kaka
country”. Another word used by Noviolet Bulawayo is “Shacks” uses in the
following passage “Getting out of Paradise is not so hard since the mothers are
busy […]. They just glance at us when we file past the shacks and then look away.”
(We Need New names, p.1). The use of the word “Shacks” by Bulawayo has the
connotation of roughly built hut. She uses that to explain the social condition of
Darling and her friends.

Another tangible words and expressions used by Noviolet Bulawayo in We

need New Names to depicts causes that push Darling to search for an Eldorado
are “Bulldozer” as evidenced in the following passage:

In my dream, which is not a dream-dream because it is also the truth that

happened, the bulldozers appear boiling. […] big and yellow and terrible
and metal teeth and spinning dust. I hear the adults saying, Why why why,
what have we done, what have we done? […] The bulldozers start
bulldozing and bulldozing and we are screaming and screaming. (We Need
New Names, p.65)

From the above passage, the word “Bulldozers” connotes mores such as
dictatorship and mismanagement of power which destruct people’s lives and
trigger Darling to search for an Eldorado. Further, one notices the use of the
expression “country-country” as seen through the following the passage:

But first we have to fight over the names because everybody wants to be
certain countries, like everybody wants to be the U.S.A and Britain and
Canada and Australia and Switzerland and France and Italy and Sweden
and Germany and Russian and Greece and them. These are the country-
country. If you lose the fight, then you just have to settle for countries like
Dubai and South Africa […]. Nobody wants to be rags countries like Congo,
like Somalia, like Iraq […], and nit even this one we live in- who wants to be
a terrible place of hunger and things falling apart? (We Need New Names,
p.49)

From that passage, one understands that the expression “country-country” is

chosen by the authoress to express about powerful nations or countries. Which
attract young Africans because of the better conditions of life gather there. That
attraction is changed into a desire of living their homeland to the country-country,
hoping to experience the better life.

However, words and expressions used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order to

depict consequences of Darling’s search for an Eldorado are listed as the
following: “Coldness” taken from this following paragraph

What you will see if you come from here where I am standing is the snow.
[…] It is a greedy monster too, the snow, because just look how it has
swallowed everything; […]. As for the coldness, I have never seen it like
this. I mean coldness that makes like it wants to kill you, like it’s telling
you, with its snow, that you should go back to where you come from. (We
Need New Names, p.148)

One understands from that passage that the world “coldness” is used to express
an enemy; no one could prevent Darling about that enemy which tells her to get
back to where she came from. Further, the expression “unwanted job” from the
following passage “And when at work they asked for our papers, we scurried like
startled hens and flocked to unwanted job” (We Need New Names, p.243). depicts
the situation experienced by migrants without paper but who wants to get a job
in order to suit their needs. They wished of being rich, having great jobs but the
reality shows the difference.

II- Sentence patterns

According to The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English,

the 7th edition, a sentence is the combination of words to create various different
rhythmical effects to complete the meaning and the purpose if your writing. Many
sentences are used by Noviolet Bulawayo in her novel We Need New Names in
order to depicts Darling search for an Eldorado. We have: declarative sentences,
interrogative sentences and exclamative sentences.

II-1-Declarative sentences
In literature, a declarative sentence is a sentence that carries a mood or
expresses the truth. In fact, in Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names,
declarative sentences are used by the authoress to give characters the voice of
denouncing mores and evils of the society. Within her book, Noviolet Bulawayo
has painted two societies, the African society and the American one. The narrator,
known as Darling thought of a great and happy life in the American society. That
desire of leaving her country started the way things are going on her country, in
which the injustice reigns. She lives in a country divided in two parts; the rich part
named “Budapest” and the poor one named “Paradise”. Because of poverty,
Darling and her friends go to Budapest to steal for guavas to ease their anger. As
evidenced: “We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows
and Sbho and Stina and me […]. There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right
now I’d rather die for guavas. We didn’t eat this morning and my stomach feels
like somebody just took a shovel and dug everything out.” (We Need New Names,
p.1). This words testify the hardship that Darling and her friend bath in their own
country. Due to the injustice, dictatorship and mismanagement of power. Due to
all those endurance, they argue: “Better a white thief does that to you than your
own black brother. Better a wretched white thief.” (We Need New Names, p.72)
From that declaration, one understands the masses are complaining about the
evil done by their own black brothers. They could understand if it were the white
man who did but not their own brothers.

Further, because of all those mores, people start to leave the country,
hoping of a better future in another country. Darling move to the United States of
America, where she hopes to find her Eldorado. Although, even if people decided
to leave, the place where they went was not a paradise at all. In fact, they are
disappointed by the reality in front of them, once they entered the new land.
Darling always thought that America was an Eldorado, Darling left out some
details when she talked to her friends back home, in order not to show America
was not her America she thought. In this connection, Bulawayo has used some
declarative sentences to illustrate it, as it is evidenced on page 188:

I didn’t tell them how in the summer nights there sometimes was the
bung-bung-bung of gunshots in the neighbourhood and I had to stay
indoors, afraid to go out, and how one time a woman a few houses from
 ours drowned her children in bathtub, all four of them, how there were
poor people who lived on the streets, holding up signs to beg for money. I
left out these things, and a lot more, because they embarrassed me,
because they made America not feel like My America, the one I had always
dreamed of back in paradise.

This declaration confirms that Darling was disillusioned, as many other persons
were. Yet, Bulawayo resorts to other sentences such as interrogative sentences.

II-2-Interrogative sentences

Defined as a type of a sentence in which a question is requested; many

Africans writers use the integrative sentences to denounce or criticized and
making comparison between two countries.

In fact, Noviolet Bulawayo uses the interrogative sentences in her novel We

Need New Names to denounce the evils done by the government, pretended to
work for the population. The narrator presents through question the
disappointment of the population done by their own government. As the narrator
explains on the following passage: “What, but aren’t you a pauper now? Aren’t
these black people evil for bulldozing your home and leaving and leaving you with
nothing?” (We Need New Names, p.75). We understand from that words that
people are questioning first about their social status; and about those who made
them pauper. They could not imagine how their own government could ill-treat
them. The solution for everyone is hoping to find an Eldorado out of the country.
Darling believes in better future out of her country, and because people don’t
know about their tomorrow in foreign lands, Noviolet Bulawayo takes a fancy to
this fact in when Bastard asked Darling about America, wondering what if it really
was or as a manner to prevent Darling from leaving, because America was not
America, because America was just a deception. The following interrogation, on
page 14, is very well-expressed: “What if you get there and find it’s a kaka place
and get stuck and can’t come back?”

Further, Darling migrates to the United States of America, believing in a

better future. In the American soil, Darling experienced that even by deciding to
leave, people are not always at ease in their Eldorado. As evidenced through the
following interrogation:

When they debated what to do with illegals, we stopped breathing,

stopped laughing, stopped everything, and listened. We heard: exporting
America, broken borders, war on the middle class, invasion, deportation,
illegals, illegals, illegals. We bit our tongues till we tasted blood, sat tensely
on one butt cheek, afraid to sit on both because how can you sit when you
don’t know about your tomorrow? (We Need New Names, p. 242)

These words prove that because they are most of the time illegal migrants and
they worry every time and about everything.

The exploration of Noviolet Bulawayo’s novel We Need New Names has

shown that the issues around immigration also appears in the figures of speech.

III- Figures of speech

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English,
the 7th edition, a figure of speech is an intentional deviation from ordinary
language, chosen to produce a rhetorical effect. When exploring Noviolet
Bulawayo’s We Need New Names, different rhetorical effects have been used
such as figure of comparison like similie, figure of opposition like irony. In fact, all
those figures are used by Noviolet Bulawayo to denounce the evils done by the
African leaders and trigger people to migrate in other countries searching for the
Eldorado.

III-1- Similie
This a figure of speech used to compare one quality of two things that are
basically different explicitly, using like or as. Within her novel, Noviolet Bulawayo
uses that figure of speech to depict the injustice that we always observe in African
society; which is the division of social classes and even worse, the division of
everything; rich people divide from poor people. Bulawayo paints a country with
the rich part called Budapest and the poor part called Paradise. The following
statement on the page 12 is very explicit: “Budapest is not a kaka toilet for
anybody to just walk in, it’s not like Paradise.” One clearly understands that the
narrator compares the two parts of her country, by praising the rich part,
reserved for special people because it is not a place for anybody to just walk in.

Further, on page 4, the narrator adds: “This place is not like Paradise, it’s
like being in a different country altogether. A nice country where people who are
not like us live.” We absolutely understand that the narrator is from the poor part
called Paradise; by comparing Paradise to Budapest, Noviolet Bulawayo shows
that Paradise is a place where people suffer different forms of problems. Indeed,
Paradise is a rural area where life is very difficult, whereas Budapest is a real
paradise, because life is very easy and people live in good conditions.

Her attraction to that rich part, urges her to migrate in the United States
of America, where she believed to be her Eldorado. Darling experience in the
America was not what she had always expected. She believed on a beautiful
country, a country where everything and all dreams are possible; but she was
disillusioned by many things like the weather. This passage on the page 150 tells
evidence “With all of this snow, with the sun not there, with the cold and
dreariness, this place doesn’t look like my America, doesn’t even look real. It is like
we are in a terrible story […].” These wording testify the comparison made by
Darling between what she thought to be a nice place and a place that she doesn’t
even know. Darling hopes to be in an Eldorado but the reality shows to her
another vision, another place.

Although, similie is not the only figure of speech used by Noviolet

Bulawayo in her novel We Need New Names, we also have the figure of
opposition called irony.

III-2-Irony

It is a figure of opposition that refers to a statement that, when taken in

context, may actually mean something different from, or the opposite of, what is
written. That figure of speech is observed in Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New
Names, in the first part of the novel named HITTING BUDAPEST. The authoress
uses the words “Paradise” as a contempt because a “Paradise” is supposed to be
a very pleasant place. The authoress uses that to describes a part of a shanty two
where poor people live and hope to escape it; search a real Paradise.

Within the novel, Paradise is the place where people went after their
houses were destroyed by the government; as the narrator argues
 We didn’t live in this tin, though. Before, we had a home and everything
and we were happy. It was a real house made of bricks, with a kitchen,
sitting room, and two bedrooms. Real walls, real windows, real floors, and
real doors and areal shower and a real taps and real running water and
real toilet you could sit on and do whatever you wanted to do. We had real
sofas and real beds and real tables and a real TV and real clothes.
Everything real. (We Need New Names, pp.62-63)

These words testify that none of them have chosen to live in Paradise, it is due
to the injustice and the mismanagement of power. We also understand that
Darling had everything before being forced to live in paradise; a place totally
different from her ancient place.

Paradise, is according to the authoress a place where people live in shacks

and suffer, lacking everything. Furthermore, on page 34, the narrator adds:
“Paradise is all tin and stretches out in the sun like a wet sheepskin nailed on the
ground to dry; the shacks are the muddy color of dirty puddles after the rains. The
shacks themselves are terrible […].” Here, we get the perfect opposition because
the word “Paradise” mean totally different from what it seems to mean; a very
pleasant place.

To conclude this chapter, I can say that Noviolet Bulawayo uses particular
elements of style to depicts causes and consequences of Darling’s search for an
Eldorado. Through her choice of words, arrangement of those words into
sentence patterns, figures of speech in her novel, Noviolet Bulawayo voices out
the inequalities and injustices existing in our societies and succeeds in conveying
significant and relevant message on immigration. That way of writing is what
provides the reader with a direct answer to the subsidiary question put in the
introduction of the chapter: What is the style used by Noviolet Bulawayo in order
to depicts factors and consequences of Darling’s search for an Eldorado in We
Need New Names? I have attempted to answer this interrogation by first
examining the diction which is the choice of words by the authoress. Then, I have
tried to study the sentence patterns used by the authoress and the key figures of
speech used in the novel.