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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
Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Under the Eyelids:
In the following passage from the Prologue, Morrison uses imagery to highlight how hurt and pain stemming from racism is physically present on the bodies of Black people:
The black people watching her would laugh and rub their knees, and it would be easy for the valley man to hear the laughter and not notice the adult pain that rested somewhere under the eyelids, somewhere under their head rags and soft felt hats, somewhere in the palm of the hand, somewhere behind the frayed lapels, somewhere in the sinew's curve. He'd have to [...] let the tenor's voice dress him in silk, or touch the hands of the spoon carvers (who had not worked in eight years) and let the fingers that danced on wood kiss his skin.
Morrison illustrates several locations of “adult pain” using the repetitive phrases that start with “somewhere.” By repeating this word—which implies the existence of some physical location—Morrison helps the reader visualize pain, which is otherwise intangible. Through Morrison’s images, the reader can imagine pain hiding all over the bodies and clothing of the people described. The physicality of the pain also emphasizes just how impactful it is, and this adds to the novel’s overall examination of how racism, an institution maintained across generations, takes a toll on the body as well as the mind and spirit.
Related Themes:
1919
Explanation and Analysis—More Tranquil than Eggs:
In 1919, Shadrack experiences his first sleep after having been released from military service. Morrison illustrates Shadrack’s slumber through several images of nature:
Shadrack rose and returned to the cot, where he fell into the first sleep of his new life. A sleep deeper than the hospital drugs; deeper than the pits of plums, steadier than the condor's wings; more tranquil than the curve of eggs.
Shadrack’s first sleep as a man free from war is deep, steady, and tranquil. Morrison first compares his sleep to that induced by hospital drugs, which is a practical and logical initial connection. The comparisons, however, become increasingly abstract as they begin to refer to images of nature—plums, condors, and eggs.
After returning from war, Shadrack withdraws from society and its expectations and roles; from this, one might conclude that he has turned to a more natural state of being. This ultimately brings him tranquility, a deep sleep that perhaps removes him too far from reality. Once in Bottom, Shadrack does not join the community, but remains an outcast and celebrates National Suicide Day, to the disdain of the other townspeople. Having withdrawn in this manner, Shadrack finds solace and peace in quiet abstractions—in the silhouettes of wings and eggs. While this withdrawal might be a reasonable reaction to whatever he experienced as a soldier, Morrison encourages the reader to consider the greater effects of societal roles and expectations on individuals—how they might drive vulnerable people to lengths as extreme as Shadrack's.
Related Themes:
1920
Explanation and Analysis—Color:
Throughout the novel, color is a detail Morrison often comments on through imagery. For Morrison, and the characters she creates, color can be pleasing and seductive, but also heavily symbolic. In the following passage from 1920, for example, Nel takes special note of her grandmother’s yellow dress:
The woman in the canary-yellow dress laughed [...] This tiny woman with the softness and glare of a canary. In that somber house that held four Virgin Marys, where death sighed in every corner and candles sputtered, the gardenia smell and canary-yellow dress emphasized the funeral atmosphere surrounding them.
The symbolism of Rochelle’s “canary-yellow dress” is unsubtle—just as a canary warns of danger in coal mines, Rochelle’s presence in the house “where death sighed in every corner” acts as a bright warning to Nel. Nel, of course, notices that her mother, Helene, and Rochelle hold little affection for one another and that the entire trip to New Orleans causes discomfort and stress for Helene. Thus, the color, “canary-yellow,” holds meaning for Nel beyond a simple visual experience.
Morrison also emphasizes the color of men’s trousers as Sula and Nel walk by them in the section 1922:
The cream-colored trousers marking with a mere seam the place where the mystery curled. Those smooth vanilla crotches invited them; those lemon-yellow gabardines beckoned to them.
In this example, Morrison uses color words that can also refer to food— “cream,” “vanilla,” “lemon.” Considering the fact that this is a moment of Nel and Sula exercising their newly-discovered sexualities, the suggestion of desire through food is appropriate.
Overall, Morrison’s attention to color adds to the overall theme of racism in the novel. For the Black people of Bottom, color has defined their entire lives—where they get to live, who they get to engage with, what jobs they are able to do. Thus, it makes sense that this community is especially attuned to noticing and adding meaning to color in the world. Through her repeated use of imagery with color, Morrison builds greater context around the novel’s theme of racism.
Related Themes:
1921
Explanation and Analysis—Wet Light:
In the following passage from 1921, Morrison uses imagery to describe Plum having been covered in kerosene by Eva:
Now there seemed to be some kind of wet light traveling over his legs and stomach with a deeply attractive smell. It wound itself—this wet light—all about him, splashing and running into his skin. He opened his eyes and saw what he imagined was the great wing of an eagle pouring a wet lightness over him. Some kind of baptism, some kind of blessing, he thought. Everything is going to be all right, it said. Knowing that it was so he closed his eyes and sank back into the bright hole of sleep.
Morrison employs imagery to describe the very physical and mysterious details of the “wet light” Plum finds all over himself. The light is later revealed to be kerosene, but this imagery, in first pointing out the liquid’s visual qualities and Plum’s imaginative, sleep-induced understanding of it, adds suspense. Perhaps because the act of a mother murdering her own son is somewhat unbelievable, Morrison creates an almost fantastical moment with Plum to further draw out the strangeness of the situation.
Morrison also describes the “wet light” as “some kind of baptism, some kind of blessing.” This reflects how Eva, as Plum’s mother, considered the act of burning her son necessary and even merciful. After the war, Plum returns to Bottom with a drug addiction, and Eva, recognizing her son’s misery, decides that she must take responsibility for whether he lives or dies. As a central moment in the novel, the inclusion of this imagery from Plum’s perspective adds complexity to the morality behind Eva’s decision.
Related Themes:
1922
Explanation and Analysis—Color:
Throughout the novel, color is a detail Morrison often comments on through imagery. For Morrison, and the characters she creates, color can be pleasing and seductive, but also heavily symbolic. In the following passage from 1920, for example, Nel takes special note of her grandmother’s yellow dress:
The woman in the canary-yellow dress laughed [...] This tiny woman with the softness and glare of a canary. In that somber house that held four Virgin Marys, where death sighed in every corner and candles sputtered, the gardenia smell and canary-yellow dress emphasized the funeral atmosphere surrounding them.
The symbolism of Rochelle’s “canary-yellow dress” is unsubtle—just as a canary warns of danger in coal mines, Rochelle’s presence in the house “where death sighed in every corner” acts as a bright warning to Nel. Nel, of course, notices that her mother, Helene, and Rochelle hold little affection for one another and that the entire trip to New Orleans causes discomfort and stress for Helene. Thus, the color, “canary-yellow,” holds meaning for Nel beyond a simple visual experience.
Morrison also emphasizes the color of men’s trousers as Sula and Nel walk by them in the section 1922:
The cream-colored trousers marking with a mere seam the place where the mystery curled. Those smooth vanilla crotches invited them; those lemon-yellow gabardines beckoned to them.
In this example, Morrison uses color words that can also refer to food— “cream,” “vanilla,” “lemon.” Considering the fact that this is a moment of Nel and Sula exercising their newly-discovered sexualities, the suggestion of desire through food is appropriate.
Overall, Morrison’s attention to color adds to the overall theme of racism in the novel. For the Black people of Bottom, color has defined their entire lives—where they get to live, who they get to engage with, what jobs they are able to do. Thus, it makes sense that this community is especially attuned to noticing and adding meaning to color in the world. Through her repeated use of imagery with color, Morrison builds greater context around the novel’s theme of racism.
Related Themes:
1939
Explanation and Analysis—The Empty Pantry:
In this passage from 1939, Morrison uses imagery to illustrate what is actually absent from the scene. Sula leads Ajax into the pantry of her house to have sex, which is the same location where her mother, Hannah, engaged in the same behavior:
There in the pantry, empty now of flour sacks, void of row upon row of canned goods, free forever of strings of tiny green peppers, holding the wet milk bottle tight in her arm she stood wide-legged against the wall and pulled from his track-lean hips all the pleasure her thighs could hold.
Morrison highlights the difference between Sula and her mother by describing what is missing in the pantry. All the foods and supplies that had previously populated the pantry and served its lively inhabitants are gone now that Sula, rather than Hannah and Eva, runs the house. The reader is forced to imagine the flour, canned goods, and green peppers that were present when Hannah was the one in the pantry.
The repetition of this behavior (entertaining men in the pantry) across generations demonstrates how Sula, her mother, and her grandmother have influenced one another in their views and practices of womanhood. Sula, believing that her mother's and grandmother’s love of men was the cause of their misery, rearranges the Peace house and lifestyle in an attempt to lead a truly independent life. She still, however, has sex with and eventually falls in love with Ajax, leading to a broken heart. Using imagery, Morrison shows how difficult it can be to escape cycles of habit and expectation in regard to women’s roles in society.
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