Previous
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
Prologue: The Flag
Explanation and Analysis—Home-Cooked Red:
In Prologue: The Flag, Death uses provocative imagery as he foreshadows the Himmel Street bombing:
Yes, the sky was now a devastating, home-cooked red. The small German town had been flung apart one more time. Snowflakes of ash fell so lovelily you were tempted to stretch out your tongue to catch them, taste them. Only, they would have scorched your lips. They would have cooked your mouth.
Related Themes:
Part 5: The Gambler (A Seven-Sided Die)
Explanation and Analysis—Weather Report:
In Part 5: The Gambler (A Seven-Sided Die), Max asks Liesel to tell him what the weather is like outside. She uses imagery and two similes to describe it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“The sky is blue today, Max, and there is a big long cloud, and it’s stretched out, like a rope. At the end of it, the sun is like a yellow hole ….”
Max, at that moment, knew that only a child could have given him a weather report like that. On the wall, he painted a long, tightly knotted rope with a dripping yellow sun at the end of it, as if you could dive right into it.
Related Themes:
Part 9: The Next Temptation
Explanation and Analysis—The Smell of Cookies:
In Part 9: The Next Temptation, Liesel and Rudy return to Ilsa Hermann's house only to find that she has left a plate of cookies for them to find on the desk. Death uses imagery to describe the cookies and their effect on Liesel:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They were Kipferl left over from Christmas, and they’d been sitting on the desk for at least two weeks. Like miniature horseshoes with a layer of icing sugar, the ones on the bottom were bolted to the plate. The rest were piled on top, forming a chewy mound. She could already smell them when her fingers tightened on the window ledge. The room tasted like sugar and dough, and thousands of pages.
Related Themes:
