I’m Down (Memoir) Blog 3

The main tool the author uses to draw the reader in is humour. I’m Down does have it’s heavy issues and heartbreaking moments but overall, it is a comical book. The way in which events are described make it easy understand and laugh at. The language that is used also helps to communicate that Wolff is from the “Hood”. As such, her father enjoys games of dominos which he cheats at. This passage is about one of her fathers friends calling him out on his cheating.

“Eldridge stood up and shook his finger, shouting, ‘Oh no, John! No way… Lil’ girl Wolff, you saw that shit! You had to-you’s right there… Even your girl saw it! Shame on you!’. My dad retorted, ‘Eldridge! You trippin!”.

The kind of language and slang make the scene more detailed and makes it easier to feel what it must have been like. This next passage describes what happens when Eldridge asks her if she saw her father cheat. He reminds her that Jesus is watching. It contains a fantastic humourous line.

“He lowered himself so he was looking into my eyes and said, ‘Jesus is watching.’ Dad glared at me across the table-he might as well have been sitting there actually opening a can of whoop-ass. It was Jesus or a can of whoop-ass… ‘I didn’t see anything’ I said. ‘See,’ my dad said to Eldridge. ‘You got nothing.’ Then he turned to me and said, ‘Mishna, why don’t you come up here, play this round.’ ‘Play dominos with you guys?’ I asked. ‘Well, you know how,’ he said, and pulled up a chair next to him, which was the coolest thing that had ever happened to me.”

The last part plays into the theme of her trying to please and be accepted by her dad. She wants to be “down” which is what the book is about.