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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
Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Maria's Hands:
In Chapter 13, Jordan takes the time to describe in detail the various sensations he experiences at Maria's touch. She is a grounding force for him, a person who possesses the ability to pull him away from his negative musings. Hemingway conveys these emotions through sensory imagery:
[Maria's] fingers and her wrist to his that was as fresh as the first light air that came moving towards you that moving toward you over the sea barely wrinkles the surface of a calm, as light as a feather moved across one's lip, or a leaf falling when there is no breeze.
Jordan describes the sensations he experiences when touching Maria: even something so simple as holding her hand imbues him with a certain quiet calm, evidenced by the comparisons he makes. This passage is noteworthy because it represents reprieve—a moment of calm while a storm brews on the horizon.
As with other moments of reprieve Jordan experiences, nature's role is central. When Jordan is dying at the end of the novel, he gazes upon the trees and the mountainside to ground himself. Maria's influence is similarly calming—she, like the natural world, soothes Jordan's aches and pains. She offers him rest from the horrors and inhumanities of modern warfare.
Related Themes:
Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Hot Wind:
In an instance of sensory imagery from Chapter 14, Jordan describes the typical sensations of the battlefield. He reminisces about the atmosphere of battle in particular, describing how the surrounding environment impacts the body and the mind:
There is a wind that blows through battle but that was a hot wind; hot and dry as your mouth; and it blew heavily; hot and dirtily; and it rose and died away with the fortunes of the day. He knew that wind well.
This image Jordan has of battle contrasts heavily with the surrounding snowstorm, unsettling Jordan: these are sensations he's unused to. The typical portents of battle are the sensations he describes: heat, dryness, filth. To be cold before a battle unsettles Jordan, serving almost as a chilly foreshadowing of his future misfortunes.
This passage provides commentary on the juxtaposition of expectations vs. reality when it comes to battle's violence and "glory." War is rarely like the romanticized visions many men held onto from the pre-modern era. Modern warfare stands in opposition to the chivalric tradition, in which knights fought honorably against one another in contests of prowess. Modern warfare is not glorious, it is ugly. Indeed, all violence is ugly.
Related Themes:
Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Imagery of Nostalgia:
In the following passage from Chapter 20, Hemingway utilizes a smorgasbord of sensory imagery to convey the various feelings Jordan associates with the places he's visited and lived.
This is the smell I love. This and fresh-cut clover, the crushed sage as you ride after cattle, wood-smoke and the burning leaves of autumn. That must be the odor of nostalgia, the smell of the smoke from the piles of raked leaves burning in the streets in the fall in Missoula. Which would you rather smell? Sweet grass the Indians used in their baskets? Smoked leather? The odor of the ground in the spring after rain? The smell of the sea as you walk through the gorse on a headland in Galicia? Or the wind from the land as you come in toward Cuba in the dark?
As Jordan lies in wait for Maria to come to him at night, he ruminates on various images that represent the "odor of nostalgia." These odors are in conflict for him, in the sense that they do not solely tie Jordan to America. He carries nostalgia for Spain and Cuba as well as America. In questioning what nostalgia feels like, Jordan wonders where (and with whom) he truly belongs.
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