Brooklyn Cop annotations Flashcards
Built like a gorilla but less timid,
- Simile: strong, imposing, hints at violence
- Humorous tone, emphasises lack of fear
thick-fleshed, steak-coloured,
Comparison to a piece of meat (dehumanising), connotations of blood/violence
with two hieroglyphs in his face that mean trouble,
Metaphor: face carved in stone, eyes and emotions hard to read and mean trouble, could also means scars (show violence)
he walks the sidewalk and the thin tissue over violence
Contrast between literal description (hard and tough) and metaphor (fragile peace)
when he said, ‘See you, babe’ to his wife,
- Cliched language, connotes worn-out/meaningless
- Shows personal life, hint of vulnerability
he hoped it, he truly hoped it.
- Repetition emphasises fear/vulnerability, contrasts with cliched language
- Shows that the cliched language is genuine
He is a gorilla to whom ‘Hiya, honey’ is no cliche.
- ‘gorilla’ repeated as a metaphor instead of simile, emphasises image
- Vulnerability/danger emphasised
Should the tissue tear, should he plunge through into violence,
- Repetition of ‘should’ shows uncertainty
- Alliteration of ‘tissue tear’ suggests sudden action
- ‘plunge’: violence is abrupt and uncontrollable
what clubbings, what gunshots between Phoebe’s Whamburger and Louie’s Place.
- The list conveys all potential danger
- ‘clubbings’: suggest cave man, shows progression of violence
- Onomatopoeia of ‘wham’
- ‘Louie’s Place’, American connotations
Who would be him, gorilla with a nightstick,
Questions who would choose to be inhuman/violent
whose home is a place he might, this time, never get back to?
- Shows fear as he may lose his life or himself (the violence may turn him inhuman)
- Every time he works he is always vulnerable
- Rhetorical question, challenges reader to consider if they could do the cop’s job
And who would be who have to be his victims?
- Syntax (unusual word order), makes the reader reflect on its meaning
- Rhetorical question, ambiguous, innocent lives may be sacrificed
- People on the wrong side of the cop are ‘victims’; the cop is not the only vulnerable one
