imagery

   __Imagery __ is the formation of mental images, figures, or likeness of things, or of such images collectively. It is the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.


 * Examples from 'Heat and Dust' by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala --**

//"It was musty and dark inside the bungalow; the place smelled dead. In fact, we did find a dead squirrel on the floor of what must have been a dining rom. It was a gloomy, brooding house and could have never been anything else." Pg. 24//  Jhabvala’s use of imagery in this passage enables the reader to be transported into the bungalow itself and experience the depressing and foreboding atmosphere. The alliterative juxtaposition “gloomy, brooding” provokes an emotional reaction in the reader – one of loneliness and dread. Jhabvala produces a similar effect with the allusions to the smell of decay, not only did the bungalow “smell dead,” but there is an actual “dead squirrel” on the floor.

//"This one seemed like a charming, rather exotic sitting room, full of rugs and painted furniture, but Karim said it was just the filthy old den where he and Kitty liked to come and relax." Pg. 99//  Here, Jhabvala uses imagery to establish a contrast between two opinions concerning a room. To the narrator, the place is rather “charming and exotic,” which creates an image of an eastern tropical paradise, just as India may have appeared to Westerners like Chid. The reader is able to sense the narrator’s fascination with the space she is seeing for the first time. To Karim, however, the room is just “the filthy old den,” which creates a more desolate image of an abandoned, run-down and dirty place.