Lit Analysis #1

1.       The Book of Bright Ideas is starts with Button and Verdella working at a gas station when they meet the Malones two sisters that are fleeing their home town. Verdella offers them a place to stay and helps Freeda the older sister find a job. As the summer goes on Button and Winnalee the younger Malone sister become best friends that do everything together. Winnalee explains to Button that she carries her mother’s urn around so that she can remember her. Verdella and Button want to help Winnalee have closer and a place to bury her mother; they drive six hours to the Malone’s home town to buy a gravestone and a plot for Winnalee’s mother. While the two are there the find out that Winnalee’s mother is not dead she is actually alive. Freeda lied to everyone and took Winnalee away from her mother so Winnalee would not get sexually assaulted by their Uncle like Freeda was. After the truth about the Malone’s comes out they leave town with no warning. Button believes that she can one day find Winnalee and become best friends again and that is how the story ends.

2.       The theme of this book is definitely friendship. It teaches you that you have to treasure a friendship for as long as you can because you don’t know when it is going to end.

3.       The author’s tone in the story is energetic and informative. Kring wants the reader to understand the characters by the way she describes them such as “Freeda had hair like a penny.” She also said that “Ma puckered her lips so much they turned white” another example is “Ma looked like she hadn’t slept. Her eyes were puffy and dark underneath-what Uncle Rudy called boxer eyes.”

4.       Flashback-“Let’s talk about a ten year old girl coming to you-your own baby girl to tell you Uncle Dewey has been slipping into her room at night…” (pg. 260)

Imagery-“Her hair lit up in the sun like hot flames”(pg.1)

Overstatement-“I was crying when Ma drug me to the car, and so was she, even though she was still stiff with meanness.”(pg. 118)

Pathos-“The girl slide out of the truck holding a capped, shiny silver vase in her arms, cradling it like it was a baby doll. What is that Verdella asked. It’s my Ma, Winnalee replied.”(pg. 7)

Hyperbole-“F it, I’m not getting my hair whacked and fried. I’m letting it grow long like Winnalee’s. Then run like hell” (pg. 51)

Magical Realism-“Course there’s such a thing as fairies!” (pg. 41)

Logos-“I’ve got to find a job before we starve to death.”(pg. 51)

Foreshadowing-“Excuse me a minute please, excuse me.”(pg. 224)

Back Story-“Yep that’s how old I was when I took off sixteen.”(pg.52)

Parody-“Course, you’ll be takin’ a chance on running into Fossard’s ghost.”(ph. 44)