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Definition of Imagery
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Epilogue
Explanation and Analysis—Waiting to Die:
In the Epilogue, Steven recounts a conversation he once had with Walter when Walter was still on death row. He remembers the imagery his client used to describe his experience of another man's execution:
When Walter was on death row, he once told me how ill he had become during the execution of one of the men on his tier. “When they turned on the electric chair you could smell the flesh burning! We all were banging on the bars to protest, to make ourselves feel better, but really it just made me sick. The harder I banged, the more I couldn’t stand any of it."
In this passage, Stevenson makes it clear that even being incarcerated on death row and never executed is an absolutely harrowing experience. Walter describes smelling the flesh of his peer burn as the electric current runs through him. Not only is this smell unpleasant, but it is also a sensory preview to the fate that awaits Walter. When Stevenson attends an execution, there is a clear separation between the person being executed (who is tightly restrained) and everyone else, who will be free to leave once the condemned person has died. Walter may not be watching the execution with his eyes, but this almost makes it worse. He smells the burning flesh from within the restraint of his cell and can imagine that the man dying is him.
Stevenson has previously described the tradition death row inmates have of banging on the bars of their cells during executions. When they are stripped of every freedom and most forms of free expression, this noise-making is a way for them to register their protest. It is also a way for them to express solidarity with one another. It is as though they are all saying, "we are people, we are still alive, and we deserve more dignity than this." Hitting the bars of his own cell and surrounded by the sound of all this banging, Walter cannot help but feel that the resistance is futile. During the course of the conversation with Stevenson, he says that he has been thinking more and more about dying. Stevenson encourages Walter to think more positively and imagine what he will do once he is released. Death row, however, has kept Walter locked away from the sensations of the outside world while forcing him to preview the sensations of being electrocuted. Walter spends years waiting for the day when the banging on the bars will be for him. It is almost as though the State begins executing people the moment they set foot on death row.
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