Structure
The novel is broken up into pseudo-chapters with the headings below:
BEAT...,
BREAK/
BEAT!
ONE-
...
DROP
BLUES
SISTER
SOUL
THROWING
WORD
SLIDE
SLIP
RATTLE
CHAIN
BREAK
RATTLE
PROPPING
SORROW
BLOOD
SING
RIP
TIDE
EBB
BEAT
BREAK/
RATTLE
DRINK
SAW
JIZZ
JAZZ
ROCK
DOWN
SEE
BLOW
HOLE
RIFF
The structure and arrangement of these titles mirror three poems that are present in the ROCK chapter. By doing so, Hopkinson is able to make the novel flow along the lines of a verse or chant, emphasizing its poetic sentiments.
Read more about this topic: The Salt Roads (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“The verbal poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. With Shakespeare it is the metaphor that is the thing, not the play.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (18991977)
“One theme links together these new proposals for family policythe idea that the family is exceedingly durable. Changes in structure and function and individual roles are not to be confused with the collapse of the family. Families remain more important in the lives of children than other institutions. Family ties are stronger and more vital than many of us imagine in the perennial atmosphere of crisis surrounding the subject.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, Be toleranteven of evil. Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealths criminals, I disagree that its all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion. Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)