In The House on Mango Street, what is the diction in the "Hairs" chapter?
By referring to "diction " we simply mean word choice. Of course, every text is shaped incredibly by the choice of each individual word as chosen by the author, and this vignette from this incredible novel is certainly no exception. What is of note is how the diction conveys...
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the impression of the young, first person narrator, who sees everything from her own eyes and describes it by conveying her way of looking at the world. Consider how the narrator describes the different types of hair in her family. She uses a number of similes to convey the differences in texture, appearance and colour which uniquely convey her child's view point:
Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa's hair is like a brook, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos' hair is thick and straight. He doesn't need to comb it. Nenny's hair is slippery--slides out of your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur.
The comparisons that are selected are not elaborate, but common, every-day objects are used that a child would be familiar with. This continues as the narrator describes the smell of her mother's hair, and how she remembers it smelling like "bread before you bake it" as she sleeps in the same bed as her parents.
Thus the diction helps develop the picture we have of the narrator as we continue to see her life in this barrio in the States through the narrator's own eyes.
In The House on Mango Street, what stylistic device is used in the chapter "Hairs"?
This incredible novel is full of small vignettes, or fragments emerging from the impressions of the young narrator who reports about her life on Mango Street from her perspective. Each vignette or chapter thus is incredibly vivid as it communicates aspects of her existence told from her child-like perspective. "Hairs" focuses on how she classifies different members of family by their different hair. Most of all, she focuses on her mother's hair, which is described as follows:
But my mother's hair, my mother's hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it...
Note the number of stylistic devices in this one long sentence as the narrator is overwhelmed by the memory of the smell of her mother's hair. It is compared to "rosettes" and "little candy circles" using two similes. A metaphor is used to compare its smell to the "warm smell of bread before you bake it." You might want to re-read this small vignette and see how many other stylistic devices you can identify. Good luck!