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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—Barkley Cove :
In this passage the author uses simile and visual imagery to describe Barkley Cove as a place that's governed by natural disorder. As Owens offers the reader an outside view of the town, she constantly points to how fragile and disorganized its structures are:
The town wharf, draped in frayed ropes and old pelicans, jutted into the small bay, whose water, when calm, reflected the reds and yellows of shrimp boats. Dirt roads, lined with small cedar houses, wound through the trees, around lagoons, and along the ocean on either end of the shops. Barkley Cove was quite literally a backwater town, bits scattered here and there among the estuaries and reeds like an egret’s nest flung by the wind.
As they describe the Cove, the narrator creates a vivid scene of coastal lowland life for the reader by focusing on precise physical details. All of the descriptions here are highly specific and full of bold color. For example, the wharf isn’t just “messy." Rather, it has “frayed ropes and old pelicans” covering it. Likewise, the water isn’t just reflecting the sky: it’s speckled with the bright red and yellows of the town’s many shrimp boats. These hues and textures give the reader a sense of the slightly decayed atmosphere hanging over the Cove.
The simile “like an egret’s nest flung by the wind” compares the town’s scattered buildings to a bird’s messy nest. By doing so, Owens is suggesting that Barkley Cove feels haphazard and loosely arranged. This image of an orderly nest blown to pieces by the wind makes the town seem as though it’s barely holding together.
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