Analyze literary device - Essay Example

This paper will review the literary devices used in the book as Garnet tries to reconnect with his cultural roots. The writer uses irony, humor and symbolism to convey a home-coming theme. The writer uses irony to show how Garnet was initially separated from his family, home and ultimately, culture. This literary device emphasizes the ensuing homecoming theme which is significant among the Aboriginal literature due to the factors that led to their displacement. His parents were forced into relocation by a hydro development project which was supposed to enhance the livelihoods of citizens but ironically, it is the same development project that moved them from their native territory.

It is ironical how he and his siblings were picked from the supposedly watchful care of their grandmother without her knowledge while their parents worked. It is also ironical how the Ontario Children’s Aid Society saw in them a gang of unruly Indian kids terrorizing an old lady in whose care they had been entrusted (Wagamese 10). Furthermore, chocolates, which symbolize sweet and wonderful things to kids, were used to lure them into the car and captivity. It is the life in foster homes and jail that drove him further away from his Indian cultures and traditions.

The writer uses humor to emphasize how Garnet is disconnected from his culture and the way he is desperately trying to fit into the reserve life. Even Garnet laughs at his own exaggerated efforts of trying to impress the reserve folks in the countryside when he arrives back from jail with his city and streetwise dressing. Comically dressed with three golden chains hanging from his neck; hippy, silver spangled platform shoes; baggy, lime green trousers with little cuffs; a yellow, balloon-sleeved silk shirt; an afro hairstyle spreading three feet around his head; and mirrored sun glasses, people crazily gaped at his outlandish figure that had no resemblance to their culture (Wagamese 31).

Furthermore, he was wearing perfume worth fifty dollars and walking with a bounce like there was a band playing inside his head. This comically alienated him from the relatives whose culture his keeper was trying to teach him, some of whom joked that Liberace had adopted him; others saying his smell could attract fruit flies to buzz around his head. The comedy first makes the reader wonder if Garnet will ever learn about reserve life, of which he is obviously strange to, and it helps to further bring out the homecoming theme as both he and the keeper learn more of their culture.

There is also comedy in the way the black man is portrayed using slang to describe Garnet’s disconnection from traditional Ojibway culture. He has big cheekbones and squinty kung-fu eyes, with two square feet of unused clothe on his trouser hanging from where the buttocks should be. Through the comedy, the black man is still able to figure out that Garnet is an Indian from the first look. The writer uses symbolism to convey the message of the theme showing that Garnet finally finds his lost identity and culture.

His reunion with his parent symbolizes philosophical, emotional, mental and spiritual equality, as well as is symbolized in the explanation of the power of the woman as described by the keeper when he gives the meaning of Soo-wanee-quay. The keeper