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Idioms
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
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—You're Setting!:
Zadie Smith uses simile, metaphor, and visual imagery to heighten the awkwardness of Claire’s encounter with Kiki when she and Warren encounter her at the bracelet vendor’s stand. Kiki and Claire have always had an awkward relationship, but it’s made even less comfortable by the fact that Kiki remains unaware of Claire’s affair with Howard. Claire says, rather breathlessly:
‘Incredible day, isn’t it? We got back a week ago and it’s hotter here than it was there. The sun is a lemon today, it is. It’s like a huge lemon-drop. God, it’s incredible,’ said Claire, as Warren softly palpated the back of her skull. She was babbling a little; it always took her a minute or two to settle [...] ‘And you look marvellous!’ cried Claire now. ‘It’s so good to see you. What an outfit! It’s like a sunset – the red, the yellow, the orangey-brown – Keeks, you’re setting.’
Related Themes:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Yellow Halo:
Howard, returning home after a long absence, is met at the door not by his father but by an unfamiliar woman. Smith uses visual imagery and simile in this passage to present this woman as a delicate and ghostlike figure. When she answers the door, Howard greets her:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Hello, dear,’ she replied serenely, and pressed on with her smile. Her hair, in the manner of old English ladies, was both voluminous and transparent, each golden curl (blue rinses having recently vanished from these isles) like gauze through which Howard could see the hallway behind.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—1970s Exuberance:
Zadie Smith uses visual imagery and foreshadowing in this passage to contrast the loud colors of the room where Harold lives with the stillness of Howard’s aging father. Howard surveys the flat and sees a space filled with leftover “1970s exuberance,” feeling like everything around him is somehow wrong:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There was probably something richly comic about all this 1970s exuberance (left by the previous tenant) settling itself around the present, grey-suited, elderly tenant, but Howard couldn’t laugh. It hurt his heart to note the unchanging details. How circumscribed must a life have become when a candy-coloured postcard of Mevagissey Harbour, Cornwall, is able to hold its place on the mantelpiece for four years!
Related Themes:
