Previous
Hyperbole
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
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Kyoto :
In her first impression of the city of Kyoto, Chiyo, who was raised in a much smaller village, uses both imagery and personification in order to highlight the size and commotion of the city:
I could hardly see the other side for all the people, bicycles, cars, and trucks. I’d never seen a car before. I’d seen photographs, but I remember being surprised at how...well, cruel, is the way they looked to me in my frightened state, as though they were designed more to hurt people than to help them. All my senses were assaulted. Trucks rumbled past so close I could smell the scorched rubber odor of their tires. I heard a horrible screech, which turned out to be a streetcar on tracks in the center of the avenue.
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—The Baron's Garden:
In a passage that employs both imagery and metaphor, Sayuri describes the elegant landscapes of the Baron's home when she is first invited there for a party:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The main house dated back to the time of his grandfather, but the gardens, which struck me as a giant brocade of textures, had been designed and built by his father. Apparently the house and gardens never quite fit together until the Baron’s older brother—the year before his assassination—had moved the location of the pond, and also created a moss garden with stepping-stones leading from the moon-viewing pavilion on one side of the house. Black swans glided across the pond with a bearing so proud they made me feel ashamed to be such an ungainly creature as a human being.
Related Themes:
Chapter 33
Explanation and Analysis—Air Travel:
When Nobu invites Sayuri, Mameha, and Pumpkin to attend a party on an island near Okinawa, Sayuri is afraid of flying in a plane for the first time. When she looks out of the window, however, she is dazzled by the view, which she describes with lush imagery:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Spread out below was a broad vista of aqua blue ocean, mottled with the same jade green as a certain hair ornament Mameha sometimes wore. I’d never imagined the ocean with patches of green. From the sea cliffs in Yoroido, it had always looked the color of slate. Here the sea stretched all the way out to a single line pulled across like a wool thread where the sky began. This view wasn’t frightening at all, but inexpressibly lovely. Even the hazy disk of the propeller was beautiful in its own way.
