The poem “Go Put on Your Face” by Nickole Brown, explains how Brown’s grandmother taught her how to be ladylike. Every grandmother has their own way of telling their children or their grandchildren about what they should and should not be doing. They tell from their own personal experience, their tricks on how to behave in public. Grandparents are there to guide an individual and Brown’s grandmother did exactly that. In this poem we learn about the different ways Brown’s grandmother made her do things. For example, she made sure her face was done and she looked presentable to the public whenever they went to the grocery store. Brown explains that her grandmother said a person will never know who they can meet at the grocery store. Fanny would say if she did not put a face on when she leaves the house she would look simple and plain. She expresses that idea when she says, “Without your face put on your face is a turnip jerked round and pale from mud” (17-18). …show more content…
Imagery is when a person can visualize an image that an author has written. We can see imagery throughout this poem countless times. In the poem she states, “They know how to contour, how to highlight, how to erase their face into a foundation to build new, how to shadow deep-crease shadows in their come sit your handsome ass down here gaze” (13-16). I can picture a woman chiseling her face to get the perfect contour and highlighting her face with her favorite highlighter. I can also imagine a woman blending foundation into her skin and putting on eyeshadows. As soon as an individual reads this sentence they can portray this image effortlessly. Another literary device used is a metaphor. A metaphor refers to an object that cannot do what the sentence is claiming. Brown says, “That hot V that flared between my brows.” (4-5). A person's eyebrows cannot literally flare, what Brown was trying to say is the unibrow that is between her eyebrows are
One example of imagery in the text is the sense sound. The author used the sense of sound to create imagery so that the reader can imagine what is going on. The author reports, "He knew his pursuer was coming; He heard the padding sound of feet on the soft earth." This is an example of imagery because Rainsford described what he heard so that the reader could imagine what sound he heard. This is important to the plot line because the main part of the story revolves on not getting found and to stay alive. If he can hear the padding of his pursuers feet than he might lose "the game.'' Therefore the sense of sound is incorporated into the literature to help develop the plot of the
Although the daughter’s shame in her mother is evident, she is also prideful of her as well. The strong love that the mother and daughter share is pervasive throughout the story. The story is being told by the daughter after she is all grown up. The fact that Jones uses such vivid detail on the mother’s preparation for her daughters first day of school shows that the daughter loved her mom and all that she did for her. The daughter recalls that her mother spent a lot of time preparing her when she says, “My mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so that now my scalp tingles.” (Jones) She also remembers that her “pale green slip and underwear are new, the underwear having come three to a plastic package with a little girl on the front who appears to be dancing.” (Jones) The daughter having remembered details like these illustrate that she has an immense love and takes pride
The author uses imagery to interest the reader in her story that may seem mundane without the imagery. An example of this happening is when Jeannette is going to her new school in Welch it was her first day and the teacher picks on her because she did not have to give the school her records to her not having them as that is happening a tall girl stabs her out of nowhere“I felt something sharp and painful between my shoulder blades and turned around. The tall black girl with the almond eyes was sitting at the desk behind me.
Orr uses imagery to show the reader that events can mentally scar one’s memory, in which a person vividly remembers that moment perfectly. To do this Orr uses lots of descriptive words and phrases that bring the reader to visualize the scene of the poem. An example is, "the dark stain already seeping across his parka hood"(2). The speaker has this image implanted in his mind, because it is the first thing that he sees right after he has shot his brother. As one reads this line, they can picture the image of blood seeping through the material of the hood in their mind, making them feel as if they are standing there with him. In addition, Orr uses the imagery of death throughout the poem. By writing, “In the bowl, among the vegetable chunks / pale shapes of the alphabet bobbed at random or lay in the shallow spoon” (15-17). The speaker is visualizing the pale deceased
There is an expectation for how people should behave in every situation. It is never made explicit what Grandma likes but it is very explicit what kind of behavior she does not like. When she marries off one of her sons she is deeply annoyed by the “tall, handsome, firm looking woman, with a direct way of speaking, walking, talking, that seemed to promise that the spoiled Baby’s days of clover were ended” (Porter, 18). This woman rattles Grandmother because she shows agency over her own life. Instead of waiting to be addressed before talking, and walking as she was taught in cotillion, she wants to “follow the chuck-wagon on the round-up and help in the cattle-branding on her father’s ranch” (Porter, 18). From a Northern perspective, there is nothing wrong with this attitude. These suggested activities help the household and benefit both her and her husband. Grandmother, however, finds it indicative of a bigger problem, she embodies “the ‘new’ woman who was beginning to run wild, asking for the vote, leaving her home and going out in the world to earn her own living” (Porter, 18). Grandmother is so repulsed that she shudders at the thought of “women so unsexing themselves” (Porter,
Imagery is any piece of language that provokes the readers mind to form a mental picture or image.
The poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a lengthy poem describing society and the social structure in the early 50’s from what it sounds. The short story “Girl,” deals with the experience of being young and female in a poor country. This poem describes a time when stereotypical gender roles where a huge part of society women had duties that only women could do such as clean, cook, wash clothing, watch the children and ect. And the men were head of the house hold and preserved as high and mighty, the untouchables by women and children. “This is how you iron your father 's khaki shirt so that it doesn 't have a crease; this is how you iron your father 's khaki pants so that they don 't have a crease;”(Kincaid) is an example of how the poem spells out how the women are supposed to cater to men, how to act in public settings and a variety of other things women were “meant to do” or as ordered by men.
A mother teaches her daughter at an early age about values and morals. Most lessons reflect society’s expectations about what it means to be a woman. Throughout Kincaid’s poem titled Girl, I noticed the use of “how to”, followed by “duties” of a woman. Kincaid’s poem is flooded with variety of emotions, and I feel a personal connection to it. Reading the poem the time setting was in the past days. Women did not take a stand, and felt
To begin, the use of imagery helps the readers create pictures that engage their senses to produce and emotional response. The first instance of imagery is in the second stanza of the poem. It tells of how the speaker and Annabel were only children when they fell in love, but he loved her more than anything thing. The speaker says: I was a child and she was a child,
Imagery is a tactics to create an image by the usage of language. Imagery, “is an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to his or her work. It appeals to human senses to deepen the reader's understanding of the work. Powerful forms of imagery engage all of the senses and use metaphors to express ideas and concepts” (Wikipedia). Thus in more exact detailing we can say that it is an author’s use of descriptive language which creates a mental image in reader’s brain. Thus an image travels from one brain to another through language. C. D. Lewis has defined an image as “…a picture made out of words…imagery is at the core of the poem and that a poem may itself be an image composed of a multiplicity of images” (qtd. in Ravichandaran
Imagery can be described in several different ways. Visual imagery is one that most readers are familiar with. This is when the writer uses descriptive words to create an image in the reader’s minds. For example, saying the girls golden hair glittered in the sunlight or the stars speckled the dark sky like precious jewels would create a distinct picture. Another type of imagery is olfactory imagery.
Imagery also has a substantial role in the poem when Grahn says “she hides/ her bad brown tooth behind a wicked smile” (2-3). These lines allow the reader to actually see the woman’s rotten tooth hidden behind a sharp smile so wickedly murderous that the crevices where her lips curl are so sharp that they could kill. This line also is an alliteration between bad and brown. “Like some isolated lake/ her flat blue eyes” is also imagery along with a simile included by Grahn to show the woman’s eyes are flat and almost lifelessly immobile. Her inanimate eyes are unmoving as opposed to colorful, sparkling eyes. An example of this would occur when a person is joyful or
For example, in the stanza number four or between lines 13-16 it can be seen how the narrator really describes what the other unnamed person would most likely want to do to the narrator as in a way to make him/her suffer. To elaborate, the narrator asks the unnamed person, “Did you want to see me broken? /Bowed head and lowered eyes? /Shoulders falling down like teardrops” (Angelou 13-15), which is very rich in its description of the site by using words like “broken”, “lowered” and “falling”. Now, since the description of sight is a part of an image in a poem and so, the above can be considered as an example of imagery.
In the poem, ¨Little Lamb,¨ the author uses imagery. Imagery is the use of figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in a way that appeals to our physical senses. Using imagery in poetry brings life to the poem and gives you the ability to feel the emotions and understand the poems details. Imagery is used in many sections of the poem such as,
Imagery may be defined as the representation through language of sense experience. Poetry indirectly appeals to our senses through imagery. Poetry thrives on imagery. Whether the poet is describing a setting, an object, or a person, imagery brings the poem alive and allows it to linger in the reader’s imagination. Imagery can also highlight the poem’s theme. A carefully chosen image, when analyzed, can unpack the poet’s intent.