Beals shows total control and mastery of her rhetoric in this novel. The syntax of the majority of this book is written in a simplistic form, which leads the reader to believe that she, during her writing, was trying to convey to the reader how young she was when all of these events were going on in her life by writing in the style of the age that she was during the late 1950s. As just a high schooler, who had been denied equal education of her white superiors, Beals displayed the intensity of the event by shortening the sentence structure to really have each sentence hit the reader like a truck with all of the violence and injustice that she endured. Also, like many things, Beals most likely still has trouble verbalizing things that happend to her during the integration process years ago because of how horrible of a year 1957-1958 was for the Little Rock Nine. The idea that Beals was reverting back to her state of mind as a teenager, very matter of fact and blunt explains why her sentence structure is so unique in this novel in its simplistic but thourough format in the novel leading up to the last few pages in which, Beals shifts from telling her account of a story to actually reflecting on the story, at which time her senteces become more complex and full.. "Over the weekend, Little Rock became an eerie city." (102) Instead of writing long, drawn out, detailed sentences in the first parts of the novel, Beals will make a statement like this about Little Rock becoming eerie, end the sentence, and then begin a new sentence to explain what she meant by the words in the preceding one. Beals' syntax style was without a doubt deliberately chosen because it undergoes a one hundred and eighty degree turn to another style in the last few pages with sentences like " Believe me, it was only by the grace of God and the bravery of those few good men- some of them white men. I never allow myself to forget that, although I was abused by many white people during that incident." (309)
What makes Beals' diction in this novel so perfect is that a lot of her writing is based in quotes, so she's not choosing the words so much as she is choosing where to place them and how to incorporate what her attackers, friends, family, and others are saying to her throughout the story. During the course of the novel, two men in charge of protecting the nine students are discussing how they will evacuate them from the danger that the mob outside Central High School posed and the diction within their conversation is indicative of the majority of the white population's feelings about the black students and the idea of ending segregation. "Let one of those kids hang? How's that gonna look? Niggers or not, they're children, and we got a job to do."(116) Phrases like that, especially those in which "nigger" is used, accurately display the hatred and ignorance of the whites toward the blacks and the entire situation at hand as well as help the reader to comprehend the attitudes of all that had a part in the integration. Words like "quiver" (67) and "paralyzed" (67) allow the reader to relate to the character and feel specific emotions regarding the events being accounted for. Throughout the novel, Beals is able to effectively use her word choice to convey the story in a way that helps the reader identify with her as well as the severity and magnitude of the situation that the story of the Little Rock Nine Integration involved.
What makes Beals' diction in this novel so perfect is that a lot of her writing is based in quotes, so she's not choosing the words so much as she is choosing where to place them and how to incorporate what her attackers, friends, family, and others are saying to her throughout the story. During the course of the novel, two men in charge of protecting the nine students are discussing how they will evacuate them from the danger that the mob outside Central High School posed and the diction within their conversation is indicative of the majority of the white population's feelings about the black students and the idea of ending segregation. "Let one of those kids hang? How's that gonna look? Niggers or not, they're children, and we got a job to do."(116) Phrases like that, especially those in which "nigger" is used, accurately display the hatred and ignorance of the whites toward the blacks and the entire situation at hand as well as help the reader to comprehend the attitudes of all that had a part in the integration. Words like "quiver" (67) and "paralyzed" (67) allow the reader to relate to the character and feel specific emotions regarding the events being accounted for. Throughout the novel, Beals is able to effectively use her word choice to convey the story in a way that helps the reader identify with her as well as the severity and magnitude of the situation that the story of the Little Rock Nine Integration involved.