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Hyperbole
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
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—Sound and Language:
At the beginning of Section 1, Tayo wakes up in Josiah's old house on the Laguna Pueblo reservation. As he wakes, his thoughts emerge jumbled and disconnected from reality—a reflection of his trauma-induced mental disarray. Silko uses auditory imagery in this passage to illustrate this mental chaos:
[Tayo] thought the Laguna words were his mother’s, but when he was about to make out the meaning of the words, the voice suddenly broke into a language he could not understand; and it was then that all the voices were drowned by the music—loud, loud music from a big juke box, its flashing red and blue lights pulling the darkness closer.
As Tayo emerges from his sleep, he hears a variety of words, none of them discernible. Laguna words spoken by Little Sister merge with the words of Japanese soldiers, vaguely familiar yet still obscure. Silko crafts this sonic imagery to illustrate Tayo's mental fragmentation and to appeal to the novel's broader exploration of "the interconnected world." Language becomes fragmented and inaudible because humanity has become fragmented, isolated from nature and from one another. Tayo's trauma is that of the world writ large, wherein people are divided from their fellow humans by nation-state borders, made to war against those they should instead feel connection to.
Related Themes:
