AP Essay
The clock dance is a story that focuses on Willa and her life. In the passage, the author uses two literary devices, repetition and metaphor to enhance the theme of friendship in the story. The first device used is repetition, whereby the author repeats the same word to emphasize the action of the characters. The author depicts the relationship between Willa and her friend Sonya to reveal how the two girls got along, Willa lacked confidence, and despite being encouraged by Sonya, she could not gain the courage to speak up.
After reaching the firs house, she could not speak up. The author uses repetition to literate the situation. Would you like—? Would you like—?” (Tyler) , by repeating these phrases, the author shows that Willa is struggling to speak as Willa tries to utter these words, but she cannot speak up. Instead, she bursts into laughter, and Sonya also makes sounds of laughter as the woman looked surprised no understanding what they were trying to do. Willa could only stammer but could not manage to finish her statement. The giggle revealed her inner feelings of helplessness because, after the giggles, tears started streaming from her eyes. This probably revealed that the woman had reminded her of someone or something that she was longing for
Metaphor is another crucial literary device used to show the complicated situation the two girls faced when trying to sell their candy. For example, the phrase “These giggles were like a liquid that flooded Willa’s whole body, causing tears to stream from her eyes” (Tyler) is a metaphor used to describe how Willa had felt after failing to speak when given a chance to do so. When the two girls reached the first house, despite having prepared, when the young lady opened the door, the two of them were too tongue-tied and lacked the confidence to speak up. The author describes their action using the phrase “bubble of laughter turned to gales of laughter “to describe how Willa lacked the confidence to speak; instead, she started laughing .thus, the author use this phrase to make makes a comparison in explaining her action. Another metaphor used in the passage is when the author describes the sadness the two girls had felt after failing to sell candy. The phrase “the sun still hung like a thin white dime” (Tyler), the author uses the word dime to show hope that despite failing on their mission they were still hopeful and looked forward to another bright day.
Despite having lacked the courage to sell any candy does not mean that they could not try again .that is why the metaphor used the above phrases by the author to explain to the reader that the girls were still confident that they would sell back. This is further enhanced by the ending phrase in the passage when Sonya said: “We ought to wait till the weekend” (Tyler) even though they felt sad about the whole situation, but they were to try again next weekend.
The two literary devices repetition and metaphor enables the reader to understand the nature of the relationship between Willa and Sonya and also enhance the theme of friendship in the story. The story reveals the awkward bond between Willa and Sonya had. Willa was always submissive; she only followed what Sonya said without arguing.
Work Cited
Tyler, Anne. Clock Dance. Paperback.Vintage .2018.