If Beale Street Could Talk

by James Baldwin

If Beale Street Could Talk: Motifs 1 key example

Definition of Motif

A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—The Sahara Again:

In a motif, Tish uses the metaphor of the Sahara Desert to describe the prison and life beyond it. Early in the book, Tish visits Fonny in prison to tell him she is pregnant, and she leaves the building in terrible sadness, loath to abandon Fonny. As she winds her way out of the prison, she describes the prison's unforgiving hallways and oppressive atmosphere:

I walked out, to cross those big wide corridors I've come to hate, corridors wider than all the Sahara desert. The Sahara is never empty; those corridors are never empty. If you cross the Sahara, and you fall, by and by vultures circle around you, smelling, sensing, your death. They circle lower and lower: they wait. They know. They know exactly when the flesh is ready, when the spirit cannot fight back. The poor are always crossing the Sahara. And the lawyers and bondsmen and all that crowd circle around the poor, exactly like vultures.