62 pages • 2 hours read
Sharon CreechA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Concrete poetry is poetry that uses typographical features—the shapes and sizes of words and the font chosen to convey them—to emphasize the meaning of particular words and phrases. Many of the poems in Moo are concrete poetry, which can be appealing because the typographical clues make meaning more accessible and create visual appeal through movement and variety. In the poem “Bugs,” for instance, the repetitive and frantic motion of scratching a bug bite is mimicked in the crowding together of the repeated word “itch” and by its larger font size: “ITCHITCHITCHITCHED!” (143) Many poems contain words and lines printed in shapes that mimic actions or objects--for example, the poem “Waiting” conveys the motion of a liquid dripping by printing the word “drips” one letter at a time moving vertically down the page (143).
Creech employs repetition—the use of a word, phrase, idea, or grammatical construction—to create emphasis in several different ways. One form of repetition she uses is the refrain, where a word or phrase recurs over and over throughout a work. For example, the idea that “[i]t gets cold in Maine, you know” is repeated throughout the poem “People Said” to emphasize the negative way that some people react to the family’s proposed move to Maine (12). Another way Creech employs repetition is through parallel structure, which repeats a grammatical pattern to group ideas. This is seen in “Rocks,” when Reena describes the rocks’ varying sizes: “tall as a bus/ small as a pea” (57). Epizeuxis, the repetition of a word or phrase with little or no interruption, is a feature of pieces like “Meltdowns,” when Luke tells his mother “No, no, no, not going, not helping, no, no, no” (78). This repetition emphasizes Luke’s determined refusal to return to Mrs. Falala’s house. Yet another form of repetition in Moo is anaphora, where the beginnings of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences are the same. For example, in the poem “Lonely,” Reena emphasizes Zora’s isolation through the repeated diction at the beginning of two successive lines: “No one for her to lean against./ No one for her to talk to” (150).
Imagery is the use of vivid sensory descriptions that bring a scene to life. Creech uses imagery throughout both the prose and poetry pieces in Moo to make the events and settings of the story more immediate and lifelike. For instance, she describes the lupines that Reena sees in “Color” as “tall spears of color/ pink and white and blue” (140), and when Zora licks Reena, in “Bodily Fluids,” Reena says that the cow’s “wet slobbery tongue/ slapped against [her] wrist” (145). These descriptions make it easier to imagine what the flowers look like and what the experience of being licked by a cow feels like.
Portmanteaus are created when two words are combined to create a new word that is not in common use. Because they are novel uses of language, they are interesting and attention-grabbing. When Reena describes the “bluegreen embrace” of the mountains (23), the “bluesilver” of the ocean (60), and the “treegreen” of the islands (60), she combines color words in new ways that draw attention to the subtle, shifting, and vivid colors of her surroundings. When, in “More Dripping,” she invents the word “dripsagging” to express both the dripping sensation of her and Luke’s tears with the sagging feeling of their spirits, Reena draws attention to the way the two emotions combine to create an even worse feeling (270).
Figurative language is phrasing that is not meant to be interpreted literally. The most common forms of figurative language in Moo are similes and metaphors. These figures of speech stimulate imagination by comparing unlike things, creating vivid and sometimes surprising descriptions that clarify meaning by stressing important features. For instance, the seagulls on the roof of Mrs. Falala’s house are “a row of feathered soldiers” (41). This metaphor stresses the upright posture and orderly presentation of the birds. Comparing them to soldiers suggests that they are protecting Mrs. Falala in some way. When Reena describes Mrs. Falala’s gesture to Reena and Luke to follow her as the woman “swirling her bony arm like a windmill” (84), this simile emphasizes the negative impression that Mrs. Falala has made on the children and portrays her as something mechanical and uncaring.
By Sharon Creech
Aging
View Collection
Animals in Literature
View Collection
Brothers & Sisters
View Collection
Childhood & Youth
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Earth Day
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Forgiveness
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Juvenile Literature
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
New York Times Best Sellers
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
Teams & Gangs
View Collection