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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
Key Examples in Sing, Unburied, Sing
Chapter 1: Jojo
Explanation and Analysis—Stink of Death:
Jojo is filled with uncontrollable disgust while in the throes of slaughtering a goat with Pop. In this moment, Ward uses foreshadowing through visual and olfactory imagery to show Jojo’s physical and emotional response to the goat’s death:
It's the smell of death, the rot coming from something just alive, something hot with blood and life. I grimace, wanting to make Kayla's stink face, the face she makes when she's angry or impatient; to everyone else, it looks like she's smelled something nasty: her green eyes squinting, her nose a mushroom, her twelve tiny toddler teeth showing through her open mouth. I want to make that face because something about scrunching up my nose and squeezing the smell away might lessen it, might cut off that stink of death.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5: Jojo
Explanation and Analysis—Sweet Red Liquid:
Leonie feeds Kayla a toxic potion of blackberry leaves, and a worried Jojo forces the toddler to vomit it up before she digests it. Ward uses visual, olfactory, and tactile imagery to make this scene feel more immediate and physically distressing for the reader:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] I carry Kayla into the bathroom and stick my finger down her throat and make her throw up. She fights me, hitting at my arms, crying against my hand, sobbing but not making no words, but I do it three times, make her vomit over my hand, hot as her little body, three times, all of it red and smelling sweet, until I'm crying and she's shrieking.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9: Richie
Explanation and Analysis—A Screaming Note:
After the Sunshine Woman describes the brutal details of a lynching, Richie has a physical response to her words that move through him like a wave he can’t stop. The author uses tactile imagery, sound imagery, and a simile to show how intensely frightening and distressing Richie finds the Sunshine Woman’s tale:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I felt a stinging in my toes, in my soles, in my legs, up my butt, and through my back, where it burst to fire in my bones, licking all through my ribs, a loose powerful feeling, like a voice freed from a throat, a screaming note all through me, and it was then I knew I was going to run.
Related Themes:
Chapter 14: Leonie
Explanation and Analysis—Color of Clay:
Right after Mam dies, Leonie looks up at the sunset-colored sky and struggles to reconcile what she sees with what she feels. Ward uses visual and tactile imagery to show how losing Mam impacts how Leonie experiences the world.
Unlock with LitCharts A+The sky has turned the color of sandy red clay: orange cream. The heat of the day at its heaviest: the insects awoken from their winter slumber. I cannot bear the world.
Related Themes:
