The first section of Tayari Jones’s Leaving Atlanta contains instances of child-like paraphernalia that are realized through the characters’ voices. The descriptions of the voices are not phrases commonly used. When talking about the fictional creature with Tasha, DeShaun says “‘You could tell me. I won’t tell anybody.’ DeShaun’s voice collapsed like a house made…
Tayari Jones’s Leaving Atlanta explores, among many things, trusting adults. What is also explored is how communities react to abducted children. Parents in Atlanta mobilized when more children vanished. Tasha’s mother sends Tasha to a house after school filled with children, so she and DeShaun would not be home alone while Mama and Daddy are…
In the Part 2 of “Leaving Atlanta” Jones writes us a second person narrator who is has intimate insight into Rodney’s interior thoughts and feelings. It would seem on face value that this is an omniscient narrator, but the narrator only knows Rodney. The narrator is centered around Rodney and never provides that kind of…
I want to look at the way the narrator describes Daddy’s absent voice compared to how the narrator describes Mama’s present body. What happens is that the narrator attributes physical or sensual characteristics to Daddy (even when he isn’t present) and gives descriptions about the unwanted presence of Mama. This difference parallels Tasha’s confusion or…