Higher Close Reading
Imagery
What it’s Not!
• Imagery does not mean ‘descriptive
writing’ eg
Down on the level, its pink walls, and
straggling roses, and green-painted rain
barrel hidden by a thick dusty planting of
spruce and larch, was Fin-me-oot Cottage,
where house martins flocked to nest in
summer, and small birds found plenteous
food on the bird tables. . .
What Imagery Is
Technically it is mainly concerned
with three ‘figures of speech’
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
1. Simile
Signified by the use of like or as…as.
For example:
• The messenger ran like the wind
• The poppies were as red as blood
Easy to recognise –trickier to explain
The messenger ran like the wind
• It is not enough to say ‘the messenger ran
very fast’ because this just gives you the
meaning (denotation) when you will be
asked about its effect
• A better beginning would be:
The simile (quote it) gives the impression
of speed because the wind is fast
• But this will still not explain why the writer
specifically chose ‘wind’ so…
… an even better answer
• The simile (quote it) gives the
impression of speed because the
wind is seen as a powerful force
which reaches great speeds. It
might also suggest that the runner
was so fast that he was creating
turbulence like the wind.
• N.B. it’s denotation plus connotation
Why is this simile
effective?
• the poppies were as red as blood
• Answer
(This simile is effective) because it tries
to communicate the intensity of the red
colour of the poppies. The word ‘blood’
suggests not just colour, but the richness
of the flower’s tone.
• Now it’s your turn
Metaphor
• The metaphor is probably the most
powerful device in the English language
• Metaphor says something is something –
the woman is a cat – not literally of course
• The attributes of the cat and the woman
are shared. The connotations of a cat
reflect the qualities of the woman
• Think about the difference if the woman
had been compared to a kitten
Why use a metaphor?
• Good metaphors contain a lot of
information that can be transferred
economically to the reader
• Think about the connotations of this
metaphor and what conveys to you about
the umbrellas: As the wind strengthened
the men clung on to the big, black birds of
their umbrellas. Few words but lots of
ideas.
So . . .
To work with a metaphor your need to:
1. Identify the metaphor – but you get no
marks for that on its own.
2. Show how the connotations of the
metaphor help to develop or refine your
idea of what is being described – the
literal root.
3. Show the link between the connotations
which you have chosen and the literal
meanings of the words used in the
metaphor
(2 and 3 can be reversed)
Example 1
• Too many tourists are so wedded to to
their camera that they cease to respond
directly to the places of beauty they visit.
They are content to take home a dozen
rolls of exposed film instead, like a bank
full of monopoly money.
Show how the metaphor highlights the
writer’s disapproval of the tourists
So how do we apply this formula?
1. The metaphor is ‘wedded’ (0 marks)
2. The connotations of ‘wedded’ are being in
a permanent relationship as a result of
being married, dependency, closeness,
exclusivity
3. All of which have the effect of
illustrating how completely indispensable
and consuming the camera is to the
tourist as if they are married.
4. The literal root of the image is
established in point 2!
Just as . . . so too
• Just as wedded has connotations of being
in a permanent relationship as a result of
being married, so too does the tourist and
the camera share similar traits. Each have
a dependency and closeness, and suggest
how indispensible and consuming the
camera is to the tourist as if they are
married.
Summary (metaphor)
1. Identify or quote the metaphor
2. Show how the literal and figurative
come together to create an effect
3. Say what the effect is
Personification
• Personification is a sub-set of
metaphor
• Some thing or an animal is given
human attributes
• Analyse it in the same way as a
metaphor
• Consider ‘the sky wept’