1 ... when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see the tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky ...

Type of figurative language:

Meaning of figurative language:

Effect on tone and mood:

Effect on the audience:

The type of figurative language is: metaphor.

Effect on tone and mood: negative turn

Effect on audience: sad and angry

Type of figurative language: metaphor

Meaning of figurative language: clouds of inferiority refers to the way segregation led to African Americans to thinking of themselves as "less than"

Effect on tone and mood: It makes the abstract have a darker tone, of sadness and impotence

Effect on the audience: it transmits the impotence of the parent when explaining to their child why they can't go to the amusement park and in a broader sense how they are "less than"

Explanation:

Metaphors are used to connect or compare two ideas that are not literally compatible, but figuratively make sense. The author here compares the feeling of inferiority that stops their children from reaching their potential with clouds that cover up the sky, thus stopping "colored" children from seeing themselves as equal and capable of doing the same things as their "non colored" peers