In the short story "Raymond's Run" by Toni Cade Bambara, figurative language is used to further our understanding of how the characters and plot in the the story develops and helps us get a better picture using our senses. Without this literary device some older readers might not experience the nostalgic atmosphere of the big city as Squeaky walks through New York, nor can we truly understand the excited but nervous thoughts before, during, and after the race in Squeaky's mind. The ending in which Squeaky changes his attitude is possible thanks to figurative language. Whether it is metaphor, simile, symbolism, or any of the lesser-known types of figurative language, Bambara uses them all to their fullest extent for the reader to understand his story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Before the race begins, Squeaky is doing everything he can to prepare, but he has a responsibility to fulfill while he does so, taking care of his older brother Raymond who has continued to exercise and run. Although it seems simple enough, the task is more than enough to keep Squeaky busy, sometimes he will go to the central island of Broadway and disturb the peace. Picking up after Raymond only distracts her a little since her main focus of the day was the May Day races. The older kids called her Mercury which is a metaphor, because she was "the fastest thing in the neighborhood", Mercury was also the Roman messenger god and was the fastest of the gods. She had won every competition before, but this year there was bigger competition, a child prodigy who thought she could beat Squeaky. An allusion is also an example of figurative language, a meeting that occurred between Squeaky's small group of friends, Raymond and Gretchen that Squeaky related to a famous movie, "I can see right away it's going to be one of those Dodge City scenes," in that the cowboys faced with guns. She had prepared and worked too hard to let these people stand in her way of winning her race, so she takes them off her path and continues her exercises and goes to the races. Figurative language is used during the race to give us more details about the race. Squeaky is all business and has no time to watch the May Pole dance. He thinks he is above all that nonsense and arrives late on purpose to miss the dance. The races will start last in the event. She points to the number seven which symbolizes perfection in the Bible, many other religions also make use of this number and it is considered a lucky number by many in the real world. To let us know how Squeaky focuses before the race, images are used to describe his dream: "Every time, just before I take off for a race, I always feel like I'm in a dream, the kind of dream you have when you have the fever and you feel all warm and weightless…” Hyperbole is also used when he runs, it is “the fastest thing in the world” and beating his father was possible By finishing the race first, the rest of the boys pile on top of her and she ensures that the rest of the 151st can walk with his head held high again, an idiom meaning to be brave or confident. After the race Squeaky's thoughts on both Raymond and Gretchen change. He realizes that Gretchen isn't that bad and uses a simile to compare her to a professional, "breathing in steady tempo like a true professional and I kind of like it a little for the first time." Besides that, Gretchen could help her train and train Raymond, on which even Squeaky had changed his mind. At the beginning of.