Jasper Jones quotes

• Jasper Jones have a terrible reputation in Corrigan, He is a Thief, a Liar, a Thug, a Truant.


  Proper nouns

  • Each negative word is an identity
  • Jasper is defined by his perceived faults
  • Values of small country towns, 1960s

  Asyndeton

  • Increased tension
  • Emphasise overwhelmingly negative perception of Jasper
  • Racist attitudes of country towns

  Congeries

  • Highlight extent of Jasper's marginalisation
• They reckon I'm just an animal with half a vote. That I'm no good. And I always used to think, why? They don't even know me... But then I realised that's exactly why. That's all it is.


  Zoomorphism

  • Perceived as less than human
  • Show racist attitudes of small country town

  Incredulous tone

  • Evoke sympathy for Jasper
  • Show the effect of the attitudes of small country town
  • Defeated and disbelieving that they think so badly of him is because they don't know him
• Of course he's a thief, they say. Of course he burned down the post office. Of course he hanged that poor girl. That poor girl.


  Anaphora

  • Repetition of 'of course he'
  • Emphasise the assumptions the town makes of Jasper because of his race
  • A sense of disparity that evokes sympathy

  Congeries

  • Frustration from the audience that he is blamed for things he didn't do
  • Extent of marginalisation of small country town

  Epistrophe (poor girl)

  • Contrast the perception of jasper - trouble maker, not to be trusted
  • With the perception of the shire president's daughter - victim, innocent
• He was sticking the boot in most of all. Pissed as a rat and twice as angry. Screaming at me, spitting.


  Imagery

  • Violence taken towards Jasper
  • Abuse of power by authority figures

  Emotive language

  • Evoke frustration at his treatment
  • Highlight the extent of his marginalisation by everyone
  • Seen as inferior, everyone else is in a position of power

  Metaphor

  • Compare a white man in a position of power as a rat
  • Rat connotations of - hate, disease, lies
  • Shire president condones violence towards criminal suspects, despite supposedly upholding justice
• ...they did unthinkable things. They stubbed cigarettes out on her skin. They cut and beat her. They pulled her hair and they spat on her


  Anaphora (they)

  • Exclusive language
  • Shows actions taken by people in positions of power
  • Suggesting Silvia holds so little power that multiple people did this to her
  • Evokes disgust

  Anaphora (her)

  • Taking away her identity
  • Reduced to a single word
  • Abused by someone in POP, more about them than Silvia

  Imagery

  • Confronting depiction
  • Highlighting the extent of the violence experienced
  • Connotations of sexual assault which is most commonly an abuse of power