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Idioms
Definition of Imagery
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Unity of Strength:
When Gene looks at or remembers Finny’s body, he’s always implicitly comparing it to his own. In the novel's first flashback, in Chapter 1, he shows this clearly in the visual imagery he uses to describe Finny’s muscles:
He weighed a hundred and fifty pounds, a galling ten pounds more than I did, which flowed from his legs to torso around shoulders to arms and full strong neck in an uninterrupted, unemphatic unity of strength.
Compared to Gene, who isn’t particularly strong or large, Finny’s body is unusually robust and harmonious. Just by looking at him, Gene can see the seamless and powerful distribution of his weight. Gene’s description in this passage details how Finny's weight "flowed from his legs to torso around shoulders to arms and full strong neck.” It’s as though Finny’s muscles are a force that surrounds his body. There’s nothing interruptive or awkward about him. Every one of his 150 pounds is being efficiently and “unemphatically” used. Gene also seems frustrated here because of this lack of “emphasis.” Finny doesn’t need to show off or demonstrate his strength for it to be obvious to anyone looking at him. Like many of his other best qualities, it’s seemingly effortless. The term "galling" as Knowles uses it here reflects Gene’s mixed feelings about Finny’s body. It’s lovely to look at, but Gene feels a sense of irritation and injustice that, unlike him, Finny moves with such grace and power.
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Explanation and Analysis—Sailing Tolls:
In this scene from the first chapter of the novel, the author employs visual and auditory imagery and a metaphor to evoke the tranquil atmosphere of the Devon School’s grounds for the reader. As Gene, Finny, and their friends walk across the grass, Gene describes what he sees and hears:
I went along beside him across the enormous playing fields toward the gym. Underfoot the healthy green turf was brushed with dew, and ahead of us we could see a faint green haze hanging above the grass, shot through with the twilight sun [...] over all, cool and matriarchal, the six o’clock bell from the Academy Building cupola, the calmest, most carrying bell toll in the world, civilized, calm, invincible, and final. The toll sailed over the expansive tops of all the elms [...] across the open New Hampshire sky to us coming back from the river.
Everything in this passage is lush, living, and “healthy,” which mirrors how Gene feels in this moment. Knowles brings the scene to life for his reader with dreamy descriptions of "dew-brushed turf" and the "green haze" above the wet grass illuminated by the "twilight sun." It’s an utterly idealized and serene landscape.
The metaphor describing the sounds of the bell the boys hear only adds to this sense of grandeur and perfection. The Devon School feels so utterly safe to Gene that even the bell’s tolling is "cool and matriarchal.” It’s as though it’s summoning the Devon School boys to it like a loving, firm mother. Everything is easy and dignified, its sound "sailing" over the trees with power and authority.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Shores of Eden:
In Chapter 4, as he wakes up on the beach next to a sleeping Finny, Gene uses visual imagery and allusion to describe the experience of seeing the shore at dawn for the first time:
The ocean perked up a little from the reflection of these colored slivers in the sky. Bright high lights shone on the tips of waves, and beneath its gray surface I could see lurking a deep midnight green. The beach shed its deadness and became a spectral gray-white, then more white than gray, and finally it was totally white and stainless, as pure as the shores of Eden.
Knowles packs this passage with color and movement to bring the dynamic marine scene to life. This excerpt is focused on capturing the contrast between dark and light elements that Gene sees. The bright reflected sunlight sprinkled around makes the dark water seem even darker. The reflection of "colored slivers" in the sky contrasts with the green depths around him. The beach also transforms from "a spectral gray-white to pure white,” as though the sand itself is suffused with light.
The allusion to the "shores of Eden" enhances the description of the beach as being white and unstained. Here, the author is likening the shore to the biblical Garden of Eden. In the Bible, the Garden of Eden was an unspoiled and pristine paradise. The beach's transformation from its usual “deadness” to being being "totally white and stainless" parallels the mythical purity and untouched nature of Eden. In this moment, Gene feels hopeful, like the world around him might have reverted to a state of innocence.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Smoking Room:
Gene uses gray, unappealing visual imagery to convey the dismal atmosphere of the "Butt Room," the Devon School's smoking room:
The school’s policy, in order to discourage smoking, was to make these rooms as depressing as possible. The windows near the ceiling were small and dirty, the old leather furniture spilled its innards, the tables were mutilated, the walls ash-colored, the floor concrete.
The visual imagery Knowles employs here portrays the smoking room as a place of deliberate neglect and discomfort. The school is not trying to make it a pleasant place to pass the time. Indeed, it’s deliberately made as unpleasant as possible “in order to discourage smoking.” Every visible element Knowles describes gives the reader a sense of how dim and unappealing the room is. Even the "windows near the ceiling were small and dirty," restricting both light and the view of the outside world. Further, the descriptions of "old leather furniture spilling its innards" and "mutilated tables" mirror the damaging effects of smoking on human bodies. This room is the opposite of many of the other spaces at the Devon School. Instead of being a lush, inviting nest or a scenic and charming cobbled courtyard, the smoking room feels neglected and out of place.
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Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Grey and Gurgling:
While the Devon School is idyllic in summer, in the harsh New England winters its rural remoteness make it feel like a prison between autumn and spring. In Chapter 9, as Gene describes this feeling of entrapment and the change in the school’s atmosphere after Leper enlists, he employs imagery, a metaphor, and hyperbole:
And these Saturdays are worst in the late winter when the snow has lost its novelty and its shine, and the school seems to have been reduced to only a network of drains. During the brief thaw in the early afternoon there is a dismal gurgling of dirty water seeping down pipes and along gutters [...] Shrubbery loses its bright snow headgear and stands bare and frail, too undernourished to hide the drains it was intended to hide.
The unpleasant visual imagery of this passage brings home the dreary, decayed winter landscape at the Devon School for the reader. Descriptions of "dismal gurgling of dirty water seeping down pipes and along gutters," along with the "gray snow crust" and "frozen mud," make the school seem like a profoundly barren and unpleasant place.
The metaphor describing the school as "a network of drains" contributes to this passage’s sense of lifelessness and stagnation. Rather than being a lively place of learning, the school has become nothing more than a frozen sewer. It merely channels away waste, making Gene feel “dismal.” The other metaphor of the "bright snow headgear" of the "bare and frail" shrubs further highlights the desolation. The leaves and berries of the plants have disappeared, leaving only skeletal shapes remaining. The hyperbole in this passage exaggerates Gene’s sense of dreariness and discomfort, making each dismal Saturday seem even more unbearable.
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Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Blessing:
Despite how ugly the atmosphere within it sometimes is, the exterior of the Devon School is sublimely beautiful. Here, in Chapter 13, Knowles deploys similes to describe the serene, idyllic atmosphere of the school one summer day:
Around them spread a beautiful New England day. Peace lay on Devon like a blessing, the summer’s peace, the reprieve, New Hampshire’s response to all the cogitation and deadness of winter. There could be no urgency in work during such summers; any parachutes rigged would be no more effective than napkins.
The first simile, "Peace lay on Devon like a blessing," reinforces the profound calm that surrounds the school on these lazy summer days. This comparison likens the peace Gene feels to a blessing that has been gently placed upon the school. This simile links the beauty, calm, and warmth of the day with the overall aura of the Devon School itself. The feeling Gene has about the school that summer day directly contrasts with how he feels there in winter. Summer at the Devon school is dreamy and perfect, the opposite of the loneliness and "deadness of winter" and the associated "cogitation”—feeling stuck in his own thoughts—the cold brings Gene.
The second simile, "no more effective than napkins," suggests that the summer is so relaxing and peaceful that no work can be done, or at least not successful work. It would be completely futile to try and make parachutes, for example, because the parachutes would be as useless as “napkins” if anyone tried. The idyllic peace of the summer renders typical activities related to work or war pointless.
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