Eudora Welty uses literary devices such as concrete detail, hyperbole, figurative language and anecdotes to help capture the intensity and value of her childhood experiences of reading. She portrays the pure evil of Mrs. Calloway, her librarian, through words and phrases that make her out to be a monster. She also explains how her mother's same "habit" of reading pressed her even more to value reading.
Welty depicts her librarian as a cruel and tyrannical monster. To show this, she starts the passage off by saying, "I never knew anyone who"d grown up in Jackson without being afraid of Mrs. Calloway, our librarian." With this statement Welty uses an anecdote to shed some light on the fear that she has of her librarian. Although she may have been terrified of Mrs. Calloway, her strict ways never put an end to Welty's love for reading. She says, "I was willing; I would do anything to read." When Welty says this, she might be using a hyperbole, but her statement definitely conveys the intensity she had towards reading. Mrs. Calloway made her own rules about books, stating that only two books could be taken out at a time. So two by two, Welty would take the books on the shelves home to be devoured. From the minute she reached her house, she began reading. Every book that she grabbed stood for the overwhelming wish to read being immediately granted. Eudora Welty became a regular at the library and reading became the most significant fixation in her life. All the books in the library (maybe even the forbidden Elsie Dinsmore) became the most important aspect in her life. "The only fear was that of books coming to an end," says Welty. Welty uses a little bit of hyperbole and figurative language to exemplify her fixation on reading and how it became an overwhelming aspect in her life. .
Eudora Welty's mother shared the very same feeling of insatiability towards books. Her mother loved books so much that she found herself reading while doing other things.