Just Walk On By Brent Staples Analysis

In “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples explains the impact he has on other people just for being an African American man. Writing for an audience of black men who have experienced discrimination. With a wise, inoffensive voice, but somewhat of a neutral tone, the author uses figurative language, writing techniques and diction to explain his purpose of writing this essay to explain to his readers of his past experience of being a black man in public places and the effect it has caused in his life.
Figurative language is seen throughout Staples’s essay. In the following quote ‘Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” the author uses a simile (1). By using like or as, Brent Staples
Onomatopoeia is seen in the following text, “At dark, shadowy intersections in Chicago, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver- black, white, male, or female—hampering down the door locks” (1). By using onomatopoeia to represent the sound the lock creates when the drivers press the button to lock the doors, it shows that they are scared for their safety as the drivers witness the author crossing the intersection. Staples degree of formality is well formatted. Staples uses cause and effect throughout his essay. The effect is, Staple’s being discriminated and the cause is his skin color. “It was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse” Staples shows how he is being misjudged because of his skin color. (1) Staples also uses allusion to show his readers that he had a decent childhood as he grew up. “And on late-evening constitutionals I employ what has proved to be an excellent tension- reducing measure; I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers” (2). Staples uses onomatopoeia, cause and effect, and allusion to help his readers understand he had a good childhood, but people still view him as a bad man.
Brent Staples essay “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” is mostly about how being a black man in today’s society has caused people to stereotype him and misjudge him only because of his color of skin. Black men’s are seen as bad people when in reality, the black man who people judge are innocent civilians just like any other people with different race. Staples uses figurative language, writing techniques, and diction to tell his past experiences and the effect it has caused in his