Imagerial, Simple, Contrasting
Imagerial
Let's start with a quote:
I flicked the negatives, as he must have done, toward the corner, heard them scratch dryly against the wall and flap to the floor. One struck the dead globe, causing it to sing its strange filamental music of the spheres, fragile and high-pitched above the outside noises. Music from the jukebox, a grinding rhythm, ricocheted down the street. Harangity oomp oomp hangity hangity oomp hangity. The aroma of barbecue tormented my empty insides, but I did not want to leave the room to go back into the mainstream of hell. (10.246)
Can't you hear it? Can't you see it? This quote reads just like a scene from a movie. We see the negatives, hear them flutter against the floor; see the nasty and barren room. We even hear the beat of the music in the background. How much more imagery could we ask for?
By using all these descriptors that make us feel like we can see and hear everything that he does, Griffin uses imagery to transport us into his world. It's not just that we're reading about him becoming a black man, but it's like we are being transformed too. You know, just minus all the danger. Which is pretty cool.
Simple
You probably noticed that even though Griffin is able to make us feel a lot of things with his words, he doesn't really use flowery language. His words are simple, and his sentences are too. No long rambling sentences packed with commas, semicolons, dashes, parentheses, or footnotes. Just simple words.
Check out this description,
A police car cruised past, slowed. The plaster-white face of an officer peered toward me. We stared at one another as the car took a right turn and disappeared behind the decrepit rectory of the church. I felt certain the police would circle the block and check on me. (8.222)
Simple. Easy to understand. But at the same time, Griffin is able to make us feel a little jumpy because of the passing police officer.
This writing style is probably natural for Griffin because he's a journalist, but it has a secret advantage. It makes him sound trustworthy. Flowery language can sound like somebody hiding a lie, or like someone is writing only for the elite capital-L Literature lovers. But with this simple, straightforward language, that even a middle-schooler could understand, how could he be hiding anything?
Contrasting
Griffin is all about the contrasts. He'll never let us forget that the world is different for black people and white people. So often, when he's describing a place that he's experienced before, he'll show us the difference between how he's treated as a black man and as the white man. For example, here he tells us about a fancy restaurant that he once went to,
At Broussard's, I had supper in a superb courtyard under the stars—huîtres variées, green salad, white wine and coffee; the same meal I had there in past years. [...] Was there a place in New Orleans where a Negro could buy huîtres variées? (4.4)
This quote makes the privilege of white men startlingly clear. As a white man with money he was able to go to this restaurant and have oysters, salad, wine, and coffee: which sounds like a pretty freaking tasty meal. But as a black man, no matter how much money he had, there is probably no place fancy enough to have these dishes that would serve him.
Imagine if a restaurant wouldn't serve Beyoncé just because she's black. Even with all her money. Yeah, that insanity was the world of the Jim Crow South.