The Use Of Imagery In Leyvik Yehoash's 'Lynching'

734 Words2 Pages

Authors use many different types of imagery in order to better portray their point of view to a reader. This imagery can depict many different things and often enhances the reader’s ability to picture what is occurring in a literary work, and therefore is more able to connect to the writing. An example of imagery used to enhance the quality of a story can be found in Leyvik Yehoash’s poem “Lynching.” In this poem, the imagery that repeatably appears is related to the body of the person who was lynched, and the various ways to describe different parts of his person. The repetition of these description serves as a textual echo, and the variation in description over the course of the poem helps to portray the events that occurred and their importance from the author to the reader. The repeated anatomic imagery and vivid description of various body parts is a textual echo used by Leyvik Yehoash and helps make his poem more powerful and effective for the reader and expand on its message about the hardship for African Americans living …show more content…

This imagery has to do with aggression that the narrator alleges God of perpetrating against the victim of this lynching. The narrator claims that “you (God) dug your nails in his ribs” and “pierced knives into his breast,” (Yehoash 107 line 24-26). These lines discuss the victims body as if it were violated by God, and the harm caused to the body was a result of Gods actions. This is a very contentious claim made by the author as he uses this imagery to parallel a crucifixion and blame a higher power. The textual echo has traversed from describing an anonymous body in harm, to explaining that harm has lead to death, to finally finding somebody to blame for that death. This textual echo both helps the reader to visual the victim of this lynching, while also understanding the train of thought that the author is going through in this

Show More
Related

  • The Use Of Imagery In Imaginative Writing By Janet Burroway

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ability to make the reader immersed in the story and the main character is the best thing to have when writing a piece. It helps the reader decide whether to keep reading or not. This ability is known as imagery. Imagery is writing with metaphors and the five sense, which creates a scene for the reader. Imagery is basically the way the author shows the reader what the main character or narrator is seeing. Janet Burroway, author of “Imaginative Writing”, which is a book about writing and the components of it, states that Image is, “An image is a word or series of words that evokes one or more of the five senses.” (Burroway, 15) Imagery is very important and good authors know how to use it to add more meaning and power to their literature.

    Read More

  • The Standover Man Sparknotes

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    “ The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies” (Zusak 175). The device is used in the evidence of the quote by using descriptives words that create a mental image. The text gives the reader that opportunity to use their senses when reading the story. “Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed” (Zusak 188). This quote demonstrates how the author uses descriptive words to create a mental image which gives the text more of an appeal to the reader's sense such as vision. “She could see his face now, in the tired light. His mouth was open and his skin was the color of eggshells. Whisker coated his jaw and chin, and his ears were hard and flat. He had a small but misshapen nose” (Zusak 201). The quotes allows the reader to visualize what the characters facial features looked like through the use of descriptive words. Imagery helps bring the story to life and to make the text more exciting. The reader's senses can be used to determine the observations that the author is making about its characters. The literary device changes the text by letting the reader interact with the text by using their observation skills. The author is using imagery by creating images that engages the reader to know exactly what's going on in the story which allows them to

    Read More

  • The Century Quilt Summary

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagery is used in thus poem to help the reader unsderstand exactly what hte Century Quilt looks like, and to know more about the speakers family. The first use of imagery can be seen on line 15-17 when the speakers says’ six van Dyke brown squares, two white ones, and one sqaure the yellow brown of Mama’s cheeks.”(15-17) This quote explains exactly how the Century Quilt looks and how specifally the speaker describes the Century Quilt shows how important it is to her. Within this quote it can also be reasonably inferred that this quilt is hand made. When the poem says “the yellow brown of Mama’s cheeks” it helps to show how this

    Read More

  • Eireann Corrigan Quotes

    1349 Words  | 3 Pages

    For instance, the novel reads, “… my right arm prickles and then numbs and my chest all of a sudden feels like it’s splintering, like inside some man is throwing his shoulder against a door again and again” (21). Corrigan’s anorexia often comes with dangerous consequences. It is evident in this excerpt that she is in a state of pain as she compares how she feels to being hit again and again by a man seemingly inside her. Although the reader is not able to experience her physical pain, they are able to understand to some extent the pain in which she is feeling. Poetic devices allow readers to recognize a character’s emotions by comparing it to a different circumstance. Likewise, the author wrote, “… I spread the local paper out on my kitchen table, looking for the movie listings and a slim column on the front page rose up: North Brunswick Man Shot and I only stopped to read it because that’s where you lived—in the sprawling neighborhood as secure and tended as a tiny national park…” (56). Corrigan’s old boyfriend, Danny, was known to be suicidal and one night decided to shoot himself in the head with a handgun. The bullet entered his head and ricocheted off his skull, narrowly missing his brain. For Corrigan, discovering this in her local paper came as quite a shock to her and she wondered how such an event could happen in a

    Read More

  • Imagery in Chopin’s Storm and John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    A pattern of repeated words or phrases can have a significant impact in conveying a particular impression about a character or situation, or the theme of a story. In the story "The Storm," by Kate Chopin, and "The Chrysanthemums," by John Steinbeck, imagery is an integral element in the development of the characters and situation, as well as the development of theme.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Judges Wife

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagery is defined as the use of figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. The author, Isabel A...

    Read More

  • Imagery Differences in Texts

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagery is defined as language that appeals to one or more of the senses. It allows the writer to convey a deeper message while entertaining the reader at the same time. Often it is used to help the readers connect what the edification is to their own real life experiences. Imagery can be used to intrigue sight, smell, feel, taste, or hearing. Writing is considered not well written without imagery because people enjoy the feeling of a personal connection with the story. The Authors that are featured in Prentice Hall Literature Poetry Collection 4 do an exceptional job of involving imagery in their writings.

    Read More

  • Theodore Roethke Imagery

    498 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sense imagery is the key tool used by authors in bringing the audience on a literary journey. Both Theodore Roethke and Wilford Owen have master the use of sense imagery. The vivid scene of a small boy’s childhood memories are brought to life by the use of sense imagery Roethke injects his poem. Likewise, Owen’s poem depicts a solider in the clutches of war. Furthermore, sense imagery allows authors to bring the audience into their world through their

    Read More

  • Joan Didion On Keeping A Notebook Summary

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagery is when the author presents a mental image through descriptive words. One prime example of imagery that the author uses is in paragraph 3; where she tells of a moment between a man and a woman. In this narration she states the time, year, outfit of each character described, and what the female character was doing. These details might come across as irrelevant, or unnecessary, but this is Didions way of showing what the blueprint of notebook it. Using imagery reinforces the foundation of the essay, and what the essay’s mission was.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 1, 000 Years (Life After God By Douglas Coupland

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    The writer uses imagery, because he wants to let the readers into his mind. By describing the scene for the readers, makes the readers fell like they were there. Therefore, it gives us a better ability to emphasize with him.

    Read More

  • Imagery and Decision Making: A Somali Girl's Journey

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some of the imagery in the story is described in a way that tells us about the author. An example would be, “ I sat on my sturdy bed, staring up at the blank, white ceiling.... My room was empty except for a worn out chair and a tall black dresser where my clothes were spilling out of.” This information tells us that the main character isn’t a very decorative person. The description of the messy clothes tells us that the character isn’t completely neat and tidy. Imagery also illustrated the culture of the main character. “ I inhaled the smell of fresh cinnamon, slightly overpowered by the aroma of cooked cabbage and well-seasoned hilib coming from the maraq that was cooking on the stove. In an attempt to distract myself, I looked around the room and with little success, tried to read some of the excerpts of the Quran she had hung on the walls.” The description of the food and decor of her grandmother’s house tells us who she is. The excerpts of Quran on the walls proves her family is fairly religious. The smells and descriptions of the food tells us what her culture is like. This use of imagery is more settle than the other methods used, but still has a significant

    Read More

  • Comparing “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker, “Nighttime Fires” by Regina Barreca, “Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims, and “Song” by John Donne

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ictures for the reader. The similar use of personification in “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker and the use of diction and imagery in “Nighttime Fires” by Regina Barreca support how the use of different poetic devices aid in imagery. The contrasting tones of “Song” by John Donne and “Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims show how even though the poems have opposite tones of each other, that doesn’t mean the amount of imagery changes.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Imagery In The Masque Of The Red Death

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagery is the use of figurative or descriptive language to create a vivid mental picture. It involves at least one of the five senses--sight, sound, touch, feel, taste. It terrifies and worries the people of the masquerade ball. Poe’s use of imagery, more specifically the sense of sight, is to express the appearance of the Red Death figure. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” uses graphic imagery to offer a powerful statement about how death can’t be escaped.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Carl Sandburg's Use Of Literary Devices

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the use of imagery Sandburg “provided concrete visual details that vividly illustrate the general semantics extensional devices. Conversely, the general semantics extensional devices provide insights into Sandburg 's poetry”(Mass). He used the device of imagery in his poem Chicago to paint a vivid picture in reader’s minds with descriptive words like “under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing white teeth”(Sandburg 765). The poem Fog presents a feeling of movement which is created by the use of imagery. There is always a progression in the presence and movement of the fog which is in turn resembles a cat and its movements. With Sandburg’s descriptive detail orientated word choice “Sandburg exhibits an imagist 's bent for describing the bare details of a scene, even in those poems whose enthusiastic and garrulous speakers do not retain the detachment and brevity characteristic of undisputed imagist poems”(Van Wienen). In the poem Grass, Sandburg uses imagery to present a strong image of how destructive war is. By listing off “Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo”, Sandburg presents a strong image of how the dead bodies resulted from the actions of war(766). By providing this vivid picture through imagery it makes readers understand the deeper meaning behind the bodies and the purpose of the

    Read More

  • In The Orchard

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another rhetorical strategy incorporated in the poem is imagery. There are many types of images that are in this poem. For example, the story that the young girl shares with the boy about drowning the cat is full of images for the reader to see:

    Read More

More about The Use Of Imagery In Leyvik Yehoash's 'Lynching'

Open Document