Ralph Ellison's Use Of Alliteration In Invisible Man

In her his novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses alliteration to emphasize the conflict that the narrator faces. In this passage the narrator comes home to Mary only to find that they both are having cabbage for dinner again. The narrator has come to realize that Mary making cabbage for several nights must mean that she is running low on money. Emphasis on the letters “s” and “m” highlight the main point of the passage; that Mary and the narrator are running out of money. Furthermore, the reader understands the pain that the narrator feels when Ellison drags out the phrase “I suffered silently whenever she served it.” The repetition of the letter “s” provides a stark emphasis on how the narrator felt when Mary served cabbage to him. Consequently,