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Situational Irony
Key Examples in Raymond’s Run
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
Bambara’s writing style in “Raymond’s Run” is colloquial, meaning that it mimics how the narrator would speak. In this story, the narrator is Squeaky, a young Black girl living in Harlem in the early 1970s, and the style of the story captures how someone like Squeaky might have told a story about her life (with some literary license). Take the following passage, for example, in which Squeaky explains why she takes issue with her mom’s desire for Squeaky to pursue activities more traditionally feminine than running:
You’d think she’d be glad her daughter ain’t out there prancing around a May Pole getting the new clothes all dirty and sweaty and trying to act like a fairy or a flower or whatever you’re supposed to be when you should be trying to be yourself, whatever that is, which is, as far as I am concerned, a poor Black girl who really can’t afford to buy shoes and a new dress you only wear once a lifetime cause it won’t fit next year.
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