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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
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—Squeaky’s Pre-Race Vision:
When Squeaky is at the starting line of the big May Day race, she feels as if she is “in a dream.” Bambara uses imagery to help readers experience this dream-like vision alongside Squeaky, as seen in the following passage:
Every time, just before I take off in a race, I always feel like I’m in a dream, the kind of dream you have when you’re sick with fever and feel all hot and weightless. I dream I’m flying over a sandy beach in the early morning sun, kissing the leaves of the trees as I fly by. And there’s always the smell of apples, just like in the country when I was little and used to think I was a choo-choo train, running through the fields of corn and chugging up the hill to the orchard.
Bambara uses several different types of imagery here to engage readers’ senses and help bring them more fully into Squeaky’s daydream. The description of feeling “sick with fever” and being “all hot and weightless” helps readers to feel this experience alongside Squeaky, the description of “the smell of apples, just like in the country when I was little” helps readers to smell this experience, and the descriptions of Squeaky flying over a sandy beach and of the train “running through the fields of corn and chugging up the hill to the orchard” help readers to see this experience.
This is notably the only section of the story in which Bambara uses imagery like this. It is likely that she does so to help readers understand that running is not simply a pastime for Squeaky, but an almost spiritual experience of transcending her “concrete jungle” urban community and all of the social expectations that come along with it.
Related Themes:
