Previous
Genre
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
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—I Will Be Good:
The narrator appeals to the reader’s sense of pathos as they describe the pitiful sounds the imprisoned scapegoat child makes. The auditory imagery of this harrowing passage brings the tortured child’s ordeal to life for the reader:
The people at the door never say anything, but the child, who has not always lived in the tool room, and can remember sunlight and its mother's voice, sometimes speaks. "I will be good," it says. "Please let me out. I will be good!" They never answer. The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, "eh-haa, eh-haa," and it speaks less and less often.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—White-Gold Fire:
As she sets the scene for the rest of the tale, the author uses visual imagery to emphasize the pristine, mythical quality of the landscape around Omelas. Everything about the city is bright and beautiful, from the “air of morning” its citizens breathe to the distant mountains on the horizon:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The air of morning was so clear that the snow still crowning the Eighteen Peaks burned with white-gold fire across the miles of sunlit air, under the dark blue of the sky.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Bright-Towered:
In this passage from the very beginning of the story, the author uses visual and auditory imagery to bring to life a fresh summer morning. Le Guin begins with a description that immerses the reader in the excited, apparently happy ambiance of Omelas during its most joyous season:
Unlock with LitCharts A+With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. The ringing of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved.
Related Themes:
