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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 5
Explanation and Analysis—Tom Hamilton:
In Chapter 5, Steinbeck describes each of the Hamilton children, characterizing each of them and highlighting what makes them unique from one another. Tom Hamilton's introduction is one of the most interesting: he is an unconventional child and abhors the rules and restrictions placed on him by society. Steinbeck uses imagery and simile in the following passage to achieve Tom's characterization:
[Tom] was born in fury and he lived in lightning . . . . He lived in a world shining and fresh and as uninspected as Eden on the sixth day. His mind plunged like a colt in a happy pasture, and when later the world put up fences he plunged against the wire, and when the final stockade surrounded him, he plunged right through it and out.
Imagery and simile both play important roles in the above excerpt. The image of Eden and the events surrounding it run throughout the passage, as if in attempting to escape society's restrictions, Tom is attempting to escape God's rule-bound garden paradise itself.
Tom has a unique way of looking at the world, through fresh and inspired eyes. He approaches every new thing with childlike wonder and hedonistic enjoyment. Like a young colt, he pushes the boundaries of normative society, straining against his enclosure. Eden could not hold such a young boy in its enclosure for long.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Cathy and Gender:
In the following excerpt from Chapter 8, the narrator dwells on Cathy's appearance, giving one of the first visual descriptions readers receive of her as a younger child. Through both imagery and simile, Steinbeck paints a picture of Cathy's visage intended to unsettle readers:
As though nature concealed a trap, Cathy had from the first a face of innocence. . . . Her body was a boy's body, narrow-hipped, straight-legged, but her ankles were thin and straight without being slender. Her feet were small and round and stubby, with fat insteps almost like hooves.
Cathy presents as an interesting figure, gender-wise. The narrator likens her body to a boy's, implying that she defies gender in some potentially transgressive way that makes her stand out. Steinbeck uses this imagery to illustrate for readers Cathy's deviation from normative expression and understanding of gender/sexuality. She views these aspects of herself as potential tools of manipulation rather than components of personal identity. Though she is not what modern readers might consider a queer character, Cathy is capable of thinking about gender and sexuality as societally-imposed constructs, external to herself.
Steinbeck caps off his initial description of Cathy with a Satanic simile, likening Cathy's feet to hooves and evoking common devil imagery.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Fear and Love:
In a fit of anger at being manipulated, Mr. Edwards takes Cathy into the countryside in Chapter 9 with the intent to harm her. Once they arrive, this initial formless sentiment hardens and coalesces into something more sinister: homicide. The narrator describes Mr. Edwards's emotions as he attempts to murder Cathy:
[Mr. Edwards's] chest and stomach turned to molten metal and a redness glowed in his head behind his eyes. There was real fear mixed up in his love, and the precipitate from the mixing of these two is cruelty.
The imagery and metaphor in this excerpt depict Mr. Edwards's physical anatomy and emotional landscape as a forge, into which fear and love combine to produce cruelty.
This passage connects intimately with several key themes in East of Eden, one of them being moral relativity. Steinbeck reveals through Mr. Edwards, among other characters, that love is not a unitary concept, nor is it universally moral or good. Love is messy and can even lead to unjust or horrific action. In the above passage it is the combination of fear and love—two emotions not typically associated with immoral action—that provoke Mr. Edwards to murder Cathy. He fears her control over him, despite loving her, and acts cruelly as a result.
Related Themes:
