THE LONESOME DEATH OF HATTIE CARROLL – LITERARY DEVICES

1. Juxtaposition
- Poor vs diamond ring: the juxtaposition of these two connotes how rich Zantzinger is
as compared to Hattie Carroll

2. Symbolism
- "Take the rag away from your face": symbolic of someone who wants to feel sad and
disappointed for a crime that took place, however they end up hiding their faces to
shed crocodile tears when they are caught for not taking action against that crime.
- "Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane" - symbolism - blow represents the cane that
Zantzinger hit Carroll with

3. Repetition
- Epiphora (repetition of a word or short phrase at the end of a series of sentences or
clauses) in Verse 3 of the word ‘table’ - gives the monotonous routine of Hattie Carroll
- "Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears" - repetition- the reaction
of people's injustice

4. Sibiliance
- “And swear words and sneering, and his tongue it was a-snarling"- the use of the
sibilance to describe Zantzinger is effective in painting an image of his personality. The
repetition of the ‘s’ sound in ‘swear’, ‘sneering’ and ‘a-snarling’ suggest a snake like
quality implying slyness and danger which fit the character of Zantzinger perfectly.

5. Metaphor
- “And that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded” - the use of improper
statistics and unverified data corrupts the judicial process