Literary Devices In The Treasure Of Lemon Brown

The author uses tone and images throughout to compare and contrast the concepts of “black wealth” and a “hard life”. The author combines the use of images with blunt word combinations to make her point; for example, “you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet”. This image evokes the warmth of remembering a special community with the negative, have to use outdoor facilities. Another example of this combination of tone and imagery is “how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in”. Again the author’s positive memory is of feeling fresh after her bath combined with a negative, the fact that it was a barbecue drum.

Aristotle once theorized, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” The book, “The Color of Water” describes the lives of James and Ruth McBride and their journeys to find this happiness. Both of these characters, among other characters in the book struggled for the majority of their lives with the issues of race. They felt as if they were caught between two different worlds; the world of blacks and the world of whites. These struggles left all of the characters feeling forlorn. In McBride’s memoir it is made clear that in order to find happiness, the characters must first be able to confront and then overcome the racial divisions that were so prominent in their lives.

LaVaughn, the main character in Make lemonade, also has a greatly changing identity throughout the book as well. Unlike Jolly, LaVaughn has a mother, but similarly to Jolly she doesn’t have a father. This may contribute to LaVaughn’s identity changes throughout the book since she does not have a fatherly figure in her life. Although with LaVaughn her identity is more affected by how others view her, and not by how she feels. We get one of our first looks into LaVaughan's identity shortly after she talks to Jolly about having the job.

People often think of family as positive, loving, and with no flaws. However, there is almost a stereotype that all families love each other and there aren’t problems or challenges in a family. Sometimes families put people through challenges and some families aren’t “perfect”. In the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jolly has two kids and goes through challenges with her family. Most careful readers can see how Jolly has these challenges with her kids and how she is far off from the “perfect” family. She goes through many of these challenges in life and finds a way to overcome them. Jollys family shapes her identity because the challenges she faces ends up making her stronger. Jeremy and Jilly challenging her, LaVaughn helping her out, and her past family all shape her identity.

In the realistic fiction story, "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" by Walter Dean Myers, Greg Ridley a fourteen-year-old boy, starts off by getting a lecture from his dad, about his poor grades in math. Greg is upset and he walks away from his house to get some alone time. As Greg is walking, a rainstorm strikes. While he is trying to find shelter, he comes upon an abandoned apartment complex. As Greg walks in he finds out that he isn't the only one in the apartment, an old man named Lemon Brown is also there. Lemon is there for a different reason though. He is trying to hide his treasure, an old harmonica, from the neighborhood thugs. The thugs weren't successful in getting Lemon's treasure. Greg returns home with a valuable lesson learned, that he should value things in life. Greg changes from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. At the beginning, Greg was careless about his grades in math. Next, he was curious when looking for a place to hide from the rain. Lastly, he ends the story off by being a caring person when he continuously asked Lemon Brown if he was okay. Greg Ridley was a dynamic character who changed from careless, to curious, to caring, after his encounters with Lemon Brown.

When Greg enters an abandoned tenement where he meets Lemon Brown. When Greg first meets this figure, Greg judges him before he tells him his story. He says “ I’m not looking for your treasure,’ Greg answered, smiling. ‘If you have one.’ “ This implies that Greg is judging Lemon by his wealth, since he is wearing rags as stated in page 8, paragraph 11. Lemon responds to Greg by explaining “ ‘What do you mean, if I have one,’ Lemon Brown said. ‘Every man got a treasure. You don’t know that, you must be a fool!’ “ This demonstrates the theme by helping Greg change his thoughts about Lemon, and also think about what his treasure might be. Most importantly, Greg now knows now to not judge a book by their cover.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, Young Goodman Brown, Brown goes on a journey through the forest that drastically changes him. While we never know the real reason why Brown went to the forest, the experience in the forest caused him to become a bitter, sad, and lonely man who couldn't look at life the same after that night. There were many events that occurred in the forest that caused this change in him.

In the story “The Treasure of Lemon Brown”, the author uses figurative language to relate to the mood and the setting. In the story, the author described the setting by using personification by saying “Gusts of

This displays the dismissal of overwhelming issues that are masked by wealth. Furthermore, the livelihood of the rich is displayed through their belongings identifying their wealth, but captures the misfortune that comes with it: “Throwing open the french windows of the drawing-room, we sat smoking out into the darkness” (Fitzgerald 165). Assets such as “french windows” (Fitzgerald 165) originating in 16th to 17th century France represents the wealth of the rich, but the “throwing open” (Fitzgerald 165) of them displays the impulsive need to escape the falsehood and burden money plays in their daily lives affecting the emotions and actions of the characters. Ergo, the only way of addressing the issue is through “smoking” in the “darkness” to portray the pain felt through color and action as a way of using it to distract from the agony instigated by money. Therefore, the encumbrance of wealth on the filthy rich mind results in the misguided view of their lives, ultimately being captured through the incorporation of windows.

What does Greg learn from Lemon Brown that the value of something is highly personal; only its owner can ever appreciate its real worth and pass it on to others? I agree that “TREASURE IS PERSONAL” because Lemon Brown says “Every man has a treasure.”

Why does this title have a peculiar title to it and what is it about? The short story “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” by Walter Dean Myers, is about a young boy named Greg Ridley who really struggles with school. At the time he was fourteen and failed his math class. His father would always give him lectures about how failing in school is not okay and in turn isn't aloud to play basketball. One day he got so mad that he ran away and ended up in some old run-down building with graffiti all over it. Greg has four big coming of age moments all throughout this story. Coming of age moments are big moments that happen in life. His first big moments is failing his first math class.

In the story “The Golden Mystery,” a strong theme is contained in just the exposition. The intended theme is that happiness isn’t necessarily determined based on one’s lifestyle of living and wealth. The McAllisters, whom were encountering a difficult phase in their life, didn’t let anything but happiness get into them as they made the most out of everything. The family was considerate to “feed those ravenous crows… some fruits that [they] preserved from harvesting last year.” The McAllisters found joy from helping others in need, and achieved happiness from the small things in their life, mindful of their condition as well. Nor were they living a decent life in which they offered the crows a portion of their fresh fruits. It was simply a matter

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” (Twain, ix) Mark Twain opens his book with a personal notice, abstract from the storyline, to discourage the reader from looking for depth in his words. This severe yet humorous personal caution is written as such almost to dissuade his readers from having any high expectations. The language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is completely “American” beyond the need for perfect grammar. “Mark Twain’s novel, of course, is widely considered to be a definitively American literary text.” (Robert Jackson,

While pondering the many different ideas in One Hundred Years of Solitude to do this project over, I stumbled upon wanting to use symbols, such as the train. I also thought that choosing one specific scene to do this project over might be the best choice. However, I chose to use what helped me most when reading the novel and what I found most interesting. Therefore, I chose to present my creative project on all of the colors used in the novel with all of their unique meanings. The many colors throughout the book speak volumes about what is going on. With so much detail and information in the novel, having the colors to help understand symbols truly helped. Marquez uses colors such as white, green, yellow, and black to display emotions, feelings,

Walter Dean Myers’ story “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” take place in Harlem during a thunderstorm. In an attempt to get out of the storm and away from his dad Greg (the main character) goes into an abandoned building where he meets Lemon Brown. Lemon Brown tells Greg his life story and about his secret treasure that the thugs want to take from him. When the thugs break in, Lemon Brown tackles them and scares them out of the house. Now with a relationship with Greg, Lemon Brown finally shows him the treasure, a harmonica and some newspaper clippings his son had carried with him during the war. This reveals that the theme is that everyone has something worth fighting for, through the hardships Lemon Brown overcame to keep his treasure and also the sentimental value that goes with it. We can see this theme sprout up many times such as through Lemon Brown showing Greg the treasure and its value, fighting off thugs for his treasure, and how his treasure relates with the internal conflict of Greg and his dad.