comment on language / style

Marjorie Agosin tells her novel “I Lived on Butterfly Hill” in language that is straightforward, reflective, and poetic. This is done for at least three reasons. First, the novel is geared toward an audience of young adults, and the language employed to tell the novel is geared toward that age group and its level of education. Second, the novel is being told by a young girl who begins the novel at the age of eleven, and ends the novel at the age of fourteen. The language matches both her age and her level of education. Third, the reflective and poetic aspect of the writing comes from the fact that Celeste herself is deeply creative, always writing down her thoughts, feelings, and ideas, and senses things on a far deeper level than those around her. As a result, the language takes on a poetic nature in her deeper understanding of things around her. This is reflected in her poem about finding her true home and putting down roots like a tree in a forest, for example.