Imagery – in literature
The power of words to transform, transfigure, inspire
The Handmaid’s Tale
“Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed
me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand,
left by a careless child too near the water.”
— The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Sherlock Holmes – The Three Gables
“She entered with ungainly struggle like some huge
awkward chicken, torn, squawking, out of its coop.”
— The Adventure of the Three Gables, by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle
Riders of the purple sage
“Her father had inherited that temper; and at times, like
antelope fleeing before fire on the slope, his people fled
from his red rages.”
— Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey
Heart of Darkness & Lord Jim
“Imagine him here—the very end of the world, a sea the
color of lead, a sky the color of smoke, a kind of ship about
as rigid as a concertina—and going up this river with stores,
or orders, or what you like.”
- Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
“I would have given anything for the power to soothe her
frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a
small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage.”
— Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
The Go-Between
“I should have an answer ready. 'Well, it was you who let me
down, and I will tell you how. You flew too near to the sun, and
you were scorched. This cindery creature is what you made me.'
“The conversation of the gods! - I didn't resent or feel aggrieved
because I couldn't understand it. I was the smallest of the
planets, and if I carried messages between them and I couldn't
always understand, that was in order too: they were something
in a foreign language - star-talk.”
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
- L. P. Hartley – The Go-Between
The Great Gatsby
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that
year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s
no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our
arms farther . . . And then one day …
And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
Tasks:
1.
“Analysis” sheet – higher, faster, stronger!
ImageryPracticeSheet
CREATIVE OPTIONS:
Take one of the images quoted, and extend the simile or
metaphor.
2. Begin a paragraph of writing, in which you create a
metaphor and use it throughout, beginning:
“A student is … ”
3. Find an example of imagery used in a novel, short-story,
play or magazine that you like. Present it, and
analyse how it ‘works’ for you.
1.