23 pages • 46 minutes read
James BaldwinThe Rockpile
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a hint to the reader of something that will come later in a story. It is used to create suspense or dramatic tension, and it can help orient a reader within a story, as it makes the reader anticipate certain outcomes.
In “The Rockpile,” Baldwin foreshadows Roy’s injuries by opening the story with a description of the rockpile itself. He writes that Roy and John believed it was a mysterious and forbidden space. As soon as the reader finds out that their mother told John and Roy but mostly Roy to not go to the rockpile, the reader can correctly assume that Roy will do so and that something bad will happen.
Baldwin also uses foreshadowing to describe the second threat facing the boys: Gabriel. Sister McCandless warns the Grimes that Gabriel is “going to raise cain” and seems to encourage that by telling Gabriel what happened on the stairs (21). The story hints at Gabriel’s violent past, and these unspoken threats foreshadow what is likely to happen. When an optical trick makes Elizabeth see John underneath Gabriel’s shoe, the violent outcome is foreshadowed again, but Elizabeth prevents it, subverting the reader’s expectations and making the foreshadowing fall short. But the foreshadowing in the story is so pronounced that the reader is left assuming John will get beaten again someday and that Roy, who is said to take after Gabriel, will end up being like Gabriel later in his life.
Imagery
Imagery is the use of figurative or metaphorical language to describe events in a story so that a reader can sense them. Often, imagery will involve adjectives and adverbs to describe something, but imagery can also make use of metaphors, similes, and other devices.
As so much of “The Rockpile” is about what John and Elizabeth see, Baldwin makes extensive use of imagery. For example, when John watches Roy fight, he sees “dozens of boys” fighting and “clambering up the rocks and battling hand to hand, scuffed shoes sliding on the slippery rock; filling the bright air with curses and jubilant cries” (18). This descriptive language helps the reader see and hear what John sees from his vantage point across the street. In contrast, after Roy is hit, there is “no sound,” and the only sights are produced by the sun which, “arrested, lay on the street and the sidewalk and the arrested boys” (18). With similar precision of language, Baldwin helps the reader sense that time is frozen, even when it could not actually be so.
Finally, at the end of the story, John’s actions are not seen by Elizabeth but only heard as the sounds, “behind her, [of] his scrambling movement” and “the scrape and jangle of the lunchbox” (25). These sounds provide their own image, and the reader is left with the physical image of John bending over to place his head near Gabriel’s shoe. This imagery creates a clearer picture for the reader and helps connect the plot of the story to the reader’s own reality, as the reader can see, hear, and feel so much of what the story conveys. Rarely does Baldwin, for instance, explain a character’s feelings or fear, as the imagery of John trembling or his head beneath Gabriel’s shoe lends the story more power.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is a literary device that implies contrast between two subjects or characters. Generally, a writer will place two characters or ideas side by side and let the reader see how they are different or similar. The effect of juxtaposition is that the readers can clearly see contrast for themselves and draw a deeper connection with the author’s message. Juxtaposition can also help make characters or actions seem fated.
Baldwin juxtaposes Roy and John throughout “The Rockpile.” While Roy is the Gabriel’s preferred son, he is also unruly and impulsive. He seeks out the violence provided by the rockpile. John is Gabriel’s least favorite child, though John is as obedient as Roy is disobedient. John, however, was conceived in sin, unlike Roy, and that is enough to make Gabriel wrathful toward John. The reader is left to sympathize with John, who has done nothing wrong.
The text also juxtaposes the safety of the fire escape with the wickedness and danger of the street below, the sense of fun the boys feel when Gabriel is away with the existential dread they feel when he comes home, and even the loving touches Gabriel offers Roy and both boys’ fear of his touch.
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By James Baldwin
