At the Bottom of the River

The tone of the text, or the way in which the story is told, shifts from despair and futility to hopeful. As the story opens, the author’s diction lends itself to an interpretation of the text as biblical or parabolic. The use of words and phrases like “For now here is a man” (63), “Look!” (65), “There it is now, dead, vanished into darkness, banished from life” (68), and “Now!” (70) establish this biblical, authoritative tone by paralleling the language in Genesis, the creation story in the Bible. This elevates the story’s message, placing it on the same level as a holy text.

In addition to the biblical tone, the text also uses a dark, futile tone in its middle section. With words and phrases like “Death on death on death. Dead lay everything” (68), “Dead is the past. Dead shall the future be” (69), and “Inevitable to life is death and not inevitable to death is life. Inevitable” (72), Kincaid establishes a bleak tone. Additionally, the repetition here evokes a funeral dirge, a type of meditative mourning music, and creates a futile tone; no matter what the characters or creatures in the text do, death is coming.