Audre Lorde

      Lorde uses vivid imagery to illustrate the character of teachers she encountered. While she described the librarian's voice as soft and quite, her first kindergarten teacher spoke "with a wicked edge to her voice." Lorde conveys much of the imagery by using visual diction to describe sounds. For instance, instead of saying the teacher spoke happily, Lorde states, "Her voice smiled a big a big smile." Lorde's use of descriptive diction and syntax allows the reader to get a good sense of different characters personalities and how Lorde felt being in their presence. At one point Lorde's teacher came over to look in her notebook, Lorde was very proud of it because she felt as though she had exceeded expectations. Lorde describes a change in the teacher's attitude by stating, "The air around her hand beside my notebook grew very still and frightening." Through this descriptive writing the reader is able to feel the same panic as Lorde did in this moment. When Lorde is transferred into a catholic school, she states that her new teacher "ran the first grade with an iron hand in the shape of a cross." As Lorde continues to describe her experience in her class, this description continues to ring true. Immediately the reader knows what to expect from the character and gets a good sense of Lorde's feelings towards her.