Which parts of the text made you picture something in your mind? This question helps you get to the meat-and-potatoes of your analysis really quickly. It could be describing an important setting, plot point, or character. What do you see in that image? Once you have that image in your mind, you can start to ask yourself why that particular image is important.
Once you find a good piece of imagery, ask yourself how it makes you feel. Is it hopeful? The feelings associated with the imagery in a work can often reveal the theme of a text. Hope is clearly a reassuring, gentle, uplifting thing. By asking yourself why Dickinson thinks hope is good, you can start to figure out some of the messages of the poem!
Test out your new-found imagery chops by analyzing a poem on your own! Y ou can find the full text of the poem, as well as additional analysis, here. There are two parts to the AP Literature test: the multiple choice section and the essay section. Some students worry about the written portion of the test so much that they forget to study for the multiple choice questions!
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Score on SAT Math. Score on SAT Reading. Score on SAT Writing. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? How to Get a Perfect 4. How to Write an Amazing College Essay. A Comprehensive Guide. Choose Your Test. What Is Imagery? A Complete Guide. Literal Imagery: Examples and Explanation With literal imagery, a writer is literally describing things to the reader.
Alan Grant, Lex Murphy, and Tim Murphy are trying to hide from a tyrannosaurus rex: They were closer to the waterfall now, the roar much louder. Writers utilize imagery as a means of communicating their thoughts and perceptions on a deeper and more memorable level with readers. Imagery helps a reader formulate a visual picture and sensory impression of what the writer is describing as well as the emotions attached to the description.
The reader can visualize the actions taking place in the poem along with a sense of orderly movement paired with disordered emotion. The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.
No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long. By utilizing imagery as a literary device, Gilman is able to evoke the same feelings of sickness, despair, fear, claustrophobia, etc.
In addition to this emotional effect, the artistic language used to describe the yellow wallpaper also enhances its symbolic presence in the story. This poem by William Carlos Williams features imagery and, in fact, is an example of Imagist poetry.
Effective thick description is rarely written the first time around; it is re- written. As you revise, consider that every word should be on purpose.
An ethnography is a form of writing that uses thick description to explore a place and its associated culture. By attempting this method on a small scale, you can practice specific, focused description.
Find a place in which you can observe the people and setting without actively involving yourself. Interesting spaces and cultures students have used before, include a poetry slam, a local bar, a dog park, and a nursing home.
The point here is to look at a space and a group of people more critically for the sake of detail, whether or not you already know that context.
As an ethnographer, your goal is to take in details without influencing those details. In order to stay focused, go to this place alone and refrain from using your phone or doing anything besides note-taking. Keep your attention on the people and the place. After observing, write one to two paragraphs synthesizing your observations to describe the space and culture.
What do the details represent or reveal about the place and people? Even though you could never capture it perfectly, you should try to approximate sensations, feelings, and details as closely as you can. Your most vivid description will be that which gives your reader a way to imagine being themselves as of your story. Bamboo walls, dwarf banana trees, silk lanterns, and a hand-size jade Buddha on a wooden table decorate the restaurant. For a moment, I imagined I was on vacation.
The bright orange lantern over my table was the blazing hot sun and the cool air currents coming from the ceiling fan caused the leaves of the banana trees to brush against one another in soothing crackling sounds. Anonymous student author, Reproduced with permission from the student author.
The sunny midday sky calls to us all like a guilty pleasure while the warning winds of winter tug our scarves warmer around our necks; the City of Roses is painted the color of red dusk, and the setting sun casts her longing rays over the Eastern shoulders of Mt.
Hood, drawing the curtains on another crimson-grey day. Flipping the switch, the lights flicker—not menacingly, but rather in a homey, imperfect manner. Hundreds of seats are sprawled out in front of a black, worn down stage. Each seat has its own unique creak, creating a symphony of groans whenever an audience takes their seats. The walls are adorned with a brown mustard yellow, and the black paint on the stage is fading and chipped. Ross Reaume, Portland State University, You might notice, too, that the above examples appeal to many different senses.
Beyond just visual detail, good imagery can be considered sensory language: words that help me see, but also words that help me taste, touch, smell, and hear the story. Go back and identify a word, phrase, or sentence that suggests one of these non-visual sensations; what about this line is so striking?
Imagery might also apply figurative language to describe more creatively. Devices like metaphor, simile, and personification, or hyperbole can enhance description by pushing beyond literal meanings. Using imagery, you can better communicate specific sensations to put the reader in your shoes. To practice creating imagery, try the Imagery Inventory exercise and the Image Builder graphic organizer in the Activities section of this section.
Isolate each of your senses and describe the sensations as thoroughly as possible. Take detailed notes in the organizer below or use a voice-recording app on your phone to talk through each of your sensations. Now, write a paragraph that synthesizes three or more of your sensory details.
Which details were easiest to identify? Which make for the most striking descriptive language?
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