Imagery In Winning Balance By Shawn Johnson

African Americans are fighting for their lives in a war that they do not even know exist. In Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal,” this idea is made clear by the narrators struggle to be seen as an equal among the white men in the story. Ellison uses a white woman, a blindfold, and an electric rug as symbols to illustrate the struggles African Americans face.

“Fine then! But I am better than you in EVERY WAY!” You shout at your former friend, the anger welling up inside of you. “ Don’t even try to act like you could ever be better than me. You never could. So you can stop trying.” As soon as you spit those words out, you finally realize what you’re getting into. “You ARROGANT beast!” Your opponent shouts at you, not hesitantly at all, like the insult was a bitter taste he had to get out of his mouth. Before you know it, your actions are fueled by the burning passion of rage. About five minutes later, you are still punching the air as you are pulled of him, still trying to swing at his head, trying to hit him just once, or maybe even as many times as he hit you. You think about the fight. You don’t want to admit it, but you WERE an arrogant beast, like he said. And look where it got you. Bruised, bloody, and beaten up. Arrogance can lead to violence, and the story, “The Fight”, by Adam Bagdasarian, can very clearly reflect this theme. In the beginning of the story, Adam was cocky and arrogant. All he thought about was how great and tough he was. In the middle of the story, another middle schooler, Mike, challenged him to a fight, and Adam was petrified. At the end of the story, Adam lost the fight and was not as cocky and pride-filled.

Visual imagery is often the first step to subconsciously sending the reader into a parallel state of mind as the protagonist, and letting them experience what the characters experienced throughout the story. The visuals used in the beginning of this story convince readers that they have been placed in a safe, secure environment, therefore having a positive effect on readers when they

Banjo also uses imagery. Imagery is words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses. This allows the readers mind to create a clear word picture, it builds up emotion, as the reader gets more engrossed and it also develops a theme. In the poem, Bulga Bills Bicycle uses imagery many times. One example in the first stanza fourth line is as follows:

Jewett makes great use of imagery to help the audience imagine the setting in its complete

Without imagery in “The Most Dangerous Game,” the setting wouldn’t be nearly as powerful. The imagery allows readers to better understand how difficult it is for Rainsford to navigate the terrain. At the beginning of the story, the narrator uses imagery to describe the island: “dense jungle came down to the very edge of the cliffs. What perils that tangle of trees and underbrush might hold for him did not concern Rainsford just Then” (Connell). The imagery is very effective in this scene because the narrator uses words such as “dense” and “tangle,” which clearly illustrate how hard it is to navigate the terrain. The imagery also allows readers to picture General Zaroff’s mansion. The narrator describes what Rainsford sees when he comes across the mansion: “but as he forged along he saw to his great astonishment that all the lights were in one enormous building--a lofty structure with pointed towers plunging upward into the gloom. His eyes made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial chateau; it was set on a high bluff, and on three sides of it cliffs dived down to where the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows” (Connell). By using words such as “lofty” and “enormous,” readers are better able to picture what the mansion looks like. Therefore, imagery is one of the reasons why “The Most Dangerous Game” is a successful short story because it enables readers to picture the setting, which is very important to the plot.

O’Brien uses imagery to enhance the story. Several examples of imagery are found in the chapter. One example is “To the north and west the country rose up in thick walls of wilderness, triple-canopied jungle, mountains unfolding into higher mountain…” (87). This quote gives the reader a vivid image of Vietnam and it’s natural beauty. Another example is “ The place was never mortared, never taken under fire…” (88) in which describes the military compound. O’Brien also uses imagery to describe looks and expressions of characters. An example of this is “Even with the cooling night air Fossie’s face was slick with sweat. He looked sick. His eyes were blood shot…” (103).

In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans' struggle for equality throughout our nation's history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality.

Beah effectively uses imagery by the usage of similes. A simile is a comparison of two contradictory terms using words "like" or "as." Imagery

In "Living like Weasels", author Annie Dillard uses rhetorical devices to convey that life would be better lived solely in a physical capacity, governed by "necessity", executed by instinct. Through Dillard's use of descriptive imagery, indulging her audience, radical comparisons of nature and civilization and anecdotal evidence, this concept is ultimately conveyed.

In the first part of the story, since the book didn’t have a point of view from Louie, the author uses many different types of imagery to allow the reader to imagine what Louie experienced and how it impacted

Tim Winton’s novel “the turning” has 17 short stories throughout it. Some of these stories connect through the character and theme in many ways. Two of Winton’s stories that connect well through character and theme are ‘long clear view’ and ‘damaged goods’. This text will be analysing these two short stories and showing how they connect by finding out what characters are the same or similar and how the themes connect.

In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans’ struggle for equality throughout our nation’s history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality.

Competitive, this is the imagery that this poem is creating and the reason why the author did this is to show us how competitive this swimmer is. This swimmer is in a race and he wants to win, the author shows us that the swimmer was well trained and ready for this. The author uses many imagery in his poem and it lets us picture in our head what is going on. When you read the poem you picture everything, nothing is a blur and you know what exactly is going on in this poem. To me it was like watching the whole thing in my head while I was reading it, without the imagery the author put in I would understand a thing about what was going on. “He flips, converts, and is gone all in one. We watch him for signs. His arms are steady at the catch, his cadent feet tick in the stretch, they know the lesson well.” In these two sentences you can picture what is going on, and in these two sentences the author shows us again how good of technique this swimmer

Through, “Invictus”, by William Ernest Henley conveys that people can not let anything stop them from achieving their dream and to fight back. The use of imagery expresses this theme because it shows how terrible the situation is. An example of this is, “My Head is bloody, but unbowed” (Henley 8). By saying that the person's head is bloody it shows that the person is going through something hard or something bad is happening to them, but they are still fighting. They are using imagery to show the pain the person has. The imagery shows they still are getting up and nothing is getting in their way of their goal. The person didn’t let people or things tell them that they can or can not do something, they fought back. Another device Henley uses is diction the speaker’s perseverance. An example of diction is “Under the bludgeonings of chance” (Henley 7). With the use of bludgeonings, which means beat, it gives the phrase a little push to be stronger and it shows more than just saying beaten or tackled. Also using diction can give another meaning to a phrase so it can emphasize a certain part for people to focus on. Another thing is if people use words that people don’t normally use then people will take the time and think what is this person trying to say. By using diction the author is emphasizing that this shows that this person isn’t letting something stop them. Even though this person didn’t make the chance they had that won’t stop them from achieving their dream.