Alejandro Fasquelle
September 22, 2013
English Lit. C
Leah: Voice Essay

Tall men with dark skin are using the red car with old tires. They are headed towards the big yellow grocery shop. Details are used everywhere because they help to explain ideas, events, panoramas, and others. But when over used they can become exhausting to the reader. Leah, a character from the book “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver has a very distinctive way of speaking. Leah’s voice is very detailed and descriptive which shows us how she is very meticulous. She expresses this characteristic through diction, syntax, and figurative language.
Leah’s diction is very advanced since her words choices are very sophisticated. She used words like “contemptuous,” as well as different synonyms when talking about the same thing. She also described things with a lot detail like when she described her father, while he was gardening: “a film of red dust on his hair and eyebrows and the tip of his strong chin gave him a fetish look true to his nature.” Her speech is so descriptive that it’s not hard to imagine in great detail whatever she describes. Leah’s diction is very wonderful and great and if she were to write a book it would be a pleasant experience for any reader.
Her diction might be one thing, but structure or syntax of her writing is different. Since she is very descriptive some of her sentences are very long so Leah uses many commas and conjunctions. Sometimes her sentences can look long like when she tells us about Nathan’s travels: “He has already been to so many places, including another jungle overseas, in the Philippine islands, where he was a wounded hero in the second world war. “ Her sentences have also another trait in common, which is the use of many adjectives. In almost every sentence you can find some. “Weary neck… rumpled hair… flat naked soul… and wilted flesh…” She loves using adjectives, which help us understand her descriptions further more.
She also used figurative language, the ones that stand out were simile: “as tall as Goliath and the hearted as David.” Used to describe Nathan, hyperbole: “a world apart from anything.” Describing Congo, and personification: “a plant that bites… the door flew open.” The figurative language enriches her language. Instead of making it boring it makes it exciting and lyrically intriguing. It helps her explain the feeling of the moment and its intensity, not just the action.
We can feel her tone of voice, which is poetic. She seems to be narrating a story as if she were reciting a poem. She is very descriptive, making the writing flourish and smooth. Her sentences are long and composed with commas. The commas make the writing seem as a poem, because when making the pause the paragraph can almost be read in verses, “as tall as Goliath and the hearted as David…a world apart from anything.” You can appreciate that she speaks in a sophisticated way since it helps us understand everything.
The most important trait she has is the use of details, which are complimentary to her other talents with language. She uses adjectives, long sentences, and describes everything in such a manner that the reader understands the many levels her writing might be expressing, from an image to a feeling. In conclusion, all of the traits she uses when writing, define the way that she speaks and give us a clear understanding of her perspective as meticulous bystander to many events throughout the book.