Language

Style of writing

The language used in the short story “Weightless and Hysterical” by Amanda Miska is informal and helps readers understand the teenage narrator’s way of thinking. 

The choice of words reveals that the narrative is heavily influenced by the narrator’s Christian background. For example, she often talks and thinks about “hell”, “God”, “Lord”, “hymns” and “harps”, and analyzes the concept of sin. In this light, several literary devices highlight the narrator’s struggle to understand the things she is supposed to believe in, according to her faith. 

The narrator often uses rhetorical questions that help her focus on the things she has been taught at school:

That was probably the biggest load of bullshit in all religion: how much you had to pretend to be something you weren’t, or feel something you didn’t. Wasn’t that lying? And wasn’t lying one of the worst sins in the book?

Another rhetorical question is used when the narrator wonders whether she will burn in hell for thinking about the joy of orgasm: “Would I go to hell for just thinking that?” This highlights the narrator’s inner conf...