June Jordan Many Rivers to Cross

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Literary Techniques in June Jordan’s “Many Rivers to Cross.”
In the last sections of her story, “Many Rivers to Cross,” June Jordan uses simple sentences and short paragraphs to communicate with the reader. At a casual glance, the paragraphs seem to be fragmented parts of the same paragraph because they deal with one overarching idea; he decision to stand up against male domination in society. However, I think this technique helps to portray the weighty nature of the story’s central issue/theme, the position of women in male-dominated societies. At the same time, she departs from Alice Walker’s use of complex sentences. She uses simple sentences as a means of making herself coherent, which suggests the ability of women to speak for themselves. In this story, Jordan tackles an issue that affects all women, and she is trying to show that they are better placed to portray society through a woman’s voice, as opposed to the distorted male viewpoint that glorifies patriarchy at the expense of women’s rights.
The use of irony is also curious, specifically, in her refusal to think of her mother as a good person. The reader understands that she loved her mother, and she viewed her a...