The White Giraffe

“Most of the time, she walked around with a crashing sensation in her head, as if she were falling into a well with no bottom.”

In the days after her parents’ tragic deaths, Martine Allen exhibits signs of post-traumatic stress as she attempts to make sense of what happened. The author uses figurative language to describe the effects of trauma on her brain. By comparing the sensation of grief and loss to falling into a bottomless well, the author conveys the helplessness that Martine feels in her new situation.

“It rose from the airport runway in a soupy, silvery haze so thick that the horizon appeared to bow under the weight of the blue sky, and all the planes had wavy edges as if in a dream.”

Using sensory language, the author conveys the contrasting climates of London and South Africa to create a visceral sense of the transition that Martine must endure as she traverses oceans and continents on her journey toward her new home. To this end, St. John personifies the heat, making it appear as if it is alive. The comparison to soup also conveys the thick oppressiveness of the air. The drastic change in climate, coupled with her lingering grief, disorients Martine and add to the surreal feeling of the moment.

“There be too many secrets at Sawubona. The chile has a right to know the truth.”

With Grace’s bold and enigmatic statement, the author also invokes the rhythm and cadence of dialect. According to the author’s note at the end of the novel, Grace’s mother was Zulu, and her father is from the Caribbean, so her dialect is Afro-Caribbean.