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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
Key Examples in Ransom
Part 2
Explanation and Analysis:
In Chapter 2, Priam tells Hecuba of his near enslavement as a child, using olfactory imagery in his account to show how this trauma left him changed:
In our nostrils the stench is still there, the old filth sticks. The smell of those others--which was my smell too, the smell of the slave's life I was being dragged away to-I can never rub off. Sometimes late at night when I'm sliding towards sleep, and in broad daylight too if I have been standing too long at some official ceremony [...] it will be all around me. Foul, close, so thick it's a wonder that others don't hold their noses and turn away.
Related Themes:
Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Prattling World:
Priam’s conversation with his mule-driver—the new Idaeus (formerly Somax)—during their rest in Chapter 3 features an extended passage of auditory imagery. In this moment, Priam becomes newly aware of the world surrounding him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But out there, if you stopped to listen, everything prattled. It was a prattling world. Leaves as they tumbled in the breeze. Water as it went hopping over the stones and turned back on itself and hopped again. Cicadas that created such a long racketing shrillness, then suddenly cut out, so that you found yourself aware once again of the silence. Except that it wasn't silence at all, it was a low, continuous rustling and buzzing and humming, as if each thing's presence was as much the sound it made as its shape...
Related Themes:
Part 4
Explanation and Analysis—The Prattling World:
Priam’s conversation with his mule-driver—the new Idaeus (formerly Somax)—during their rest in Chapter 3 features an extended passage of auditory imagery. In this moment, Priam becomes newly aware of the world surrounding him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But out there, if you stopped to listen, everything prattled. It was a prattling world. Leaves as they tumbled in the breeze. Water as it went hopping over the stones and turned back on itself and hopped again. Cicadas that created such a long racketing shrillness, then suddenly cut out, so that you found yourself aware once again of the silence. Except that it wasn't silence at all, it was a low, continuous rustling and buzzing and humming, as if each thing's presence was as much the sound it made as its shape...
Related Themes:
Part 5
Explanation and Analysis:
In Chapter 2, Priam tells Hecuba of his near enslavement as a child, using olfactory imagery in his account to show how this trauma left him changed:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In our nostrils the stench is still there, the old filth sticks. The smell of those others--which was my smell too, the smell of the slave's life I was being dragged away to-I can never rub off. Sometimes late at night when I'm sliding towards sleep, and in broad daylight too if I have been standing too long at some official ceremony [...] it will be all around me. Foul, close, so thick it's a wonder that others don't hold their noses and turn away.
Related Themes:
