Turtle On A Fence Post Literary Analysis

Imagine losing the people who are closest to you and then being sent to live with a family you barely know. To top it all off, a petulant old man whose sole purpose in life seems to be complaining also joins the family. June Rae Wood’s enticing novel, “Turtle on a Fence Post”, captures the sorrow and the pain of a girl situation. Throughout all the losses in her life, Delrita (the protagonist) still manages to stay strong. This story makes people think and view situations through different viewpoints. June Rae Wood develops the story through literary devices such as imagery, foreshadowing, and figurative language.

To begin with, the use of imagery in this story helps draw the reader into the story and feel like they were a part of it. For instance, when Delrita was visiting Mr. Roebuck in the hospital, she “[R]ode the elevator to the third floor, and walked through a vast endless

These three main literary devices give a complete picture of the story, and this novel would not be as magnificent without them. Imagery paints a picture of certain scenes in the reader’s mind and makes them feel like part of the story; the use of foreshadowing keeps readers on the edge of their seat wanting to know what is going to happen; figurative language keeps the reader interested and makes them think. At any rate, this book had many strengths, including how the story prods emotional response from the reader (death of loved ones and mental issues generally make people sad). However, this story also has several weaknesses, such as the overuse of coincidences (Delrita had a retarded uncle, met a man with the same mental illness as her uncle, and learned that her ‘enemy’s’ mother was in the same nursing home as the man she met). Overall, this is an amazing novel made better by the various literary devices used by June Rae