Narration

The most prominent stylistic aspect of "Raymond's Run" is the narrator's voice. Hazel Parker, narrating in the first person ("I"), recounts her experiences on the city streets and at the May Day races with verve and flair. The immediacy of an oral voice is communicated by the use of colloquial expressions (the everyday language of a community), as in Hazel's declaration "I don't feature a whole lot of chit-chat, I much prefer to just knock you down from the jump and save everybody a lotta precious time."

Repetitive, rhythmic phrasing is another technique which contributes to the oral quality of the narration, such as when Hazel describes her mother's reaction to Hazel's "high-pranc[ing]" down 34th Street "like a rodeo pony" to strengthen her knees: "she walks ahead like she's not with me, don't know me, is all by herself on a shopping trip, and I am somebody...