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Question: A literary technique used in this passage!?
What is one literary technique used in this passage, "The Santa Ana" by Joan Didion!?
*the "bad wind blowing" is NOT personification!.*
"I recall being told, when I first moved to Los Angeles and was living on an isolated beach, that the Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew!. I could see why!. The Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf!. The heat was surreal!. The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes called "earthquake weather!." My only neighbor would not come out of her house for days, and there were no lights at night, and her husband roamed the place with a machete!. One day he would tell me that he had heard a trespasser, the next a rattlesnake!. Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/literary_te!.!.!.
I scrolled down to the list provided by Wiki of 'literary technique,' which is useful in that it gives brief definitions of each type of technique!. You should do the same as I have only a faint memory of this Didion story!.
Left to me, based on this passage, I'd include for thought these techniques:
1!.) back-story (is it!?)
2!.) defamiliarization (yep)
3!.) imagery (yep)
4!.) (possible) fore-shadowing
I'm sure if you read the list through the link above, and the definitions, you can choose a technique you feel is correct as used here!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
"!.!.!.the Indians would throw themselves into the sea!.!.!." I can't remember the name of the technique, but it is because of the word "throw", because you don't literally throw yourself into the sea!.
"!.!.!.peacocks screaming!.!.!." - Personification
"The heat was surreal!." - Short snappy sentence to draw attention!.
And also lots of adjectives and imagery!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Imagery is one literary technique because we are given what the sky looks like, the scream of the peacocks, the absence of the surf, no lights on at night, and the husband roaming with a machete!.
"!.!.!.peacocks screaming!.!.!." is not personification because the peacocks are actually screaming!.Www@QuestionHome@Com