Question

question 9 of 10
read this passage from
otes of a native son\:

in that year i had had time to become aware of the
meaning of all my fathers bitter warnings, had discovered
the secret of his proudly pursed lips and rigid carriage: i
had discovered the weight of white people in the world.

what rhetorical device is james baldwin most clearly using in this passage?

a. imagery

b. metaphor

c. allusion

d. parallelism

Explanation:

To determine the rhetorical device, we analyze each option:

• A. Imagery: Focuses on sensory details, but the passage’s strength is not in sensory description.
• B. Metaphor: Makes a direct comparison, but the passage does not compare two unlike things.
• C. Allusion: Refers to external texts/ideas, which is absent here.
• D. Parallelism: The phrase “had had time to... had discovered... had discovered...” uses repeated “had + past participle” structure, creating parallelism (repetition of grammatical form for emphasis/flow). This matches the passage’s structure.

Answer:

D. Parallelism