Imagery
Analysis
Notes
Step One:
Identify Imagery – word
pictures appealing to one of the 5
senses (if you can’t identify which
one, it isn’t a valid example of
imagery)
Step Two: Determine which type of imagery.
It must appeal to at least one sense.
◊ Visual
◊ Tactile
◊ Auditory
◊ Gustatory
◊ Olfactory
Step Three:
State whether imagery is positive or negative
Step Four:
Determine effect imagery has on story –
• Produces an appropriate mood
• Produces an appropriate emotional
response from the reader
• Reveals the personality of the
narrator or character in the story
• Makes the theme in the work
easier to understand
EXAMPLE
It was a mine town, uranium most recently.
Dust devils whirled sand off the mountains.
Even after the heaviest of rains, the water
seeped back into the ground, between
stones, and the earth was parched again.
- Linda Hogan, “Making Do”
It was a mine town, uranium most recently. Dust
devils whirled sand off the mountains. Even
after the heaviest of rains, the water seeped
back into the ground, between stones, and the
earth was parched again.
• What type of imagery?
• What feelings do you associate with images of
dusty mountains and dry earth?
• There are two images associated with land in the
third sentence. Identify the two images and
compare and contrast the feelings the images
evoke.
EXAMPLE
• 1st image - water seeping back into the ground =
offers some hope of regeneration
• 2nd image - ground is parched = offering no hope of
regeneration
• Earth = wide-ranging permanence, parched =
extreme, again = intimating that the earth has been
parched and will be parched in the future
• Connection to mood or theme or emotional
response in reader?
Assignment:
• Identify imagery in Chronicle of a Death
Foretold and provide the context in
which it appears in the text
• Connect the image to magical realism.
Avoid generic commentary. Provide an
original insight. Pay attention to your
own diction. It enhances your analysis.
Paragraph Outline
1. Topic sentence must include:
–
–
–
–
Title
Author
Imagery
Author’s purpose (magical realism)
2. Incorporated, documented textual proof
3. Explanation of author’s purpose (why or how
does the author use this literary device, NOT
what is the definition of the literary device)
4. Reference to textual proof
5. Explanation of author’s purpose
6. Conclusion – relate author’s purpose to a major
theme in the work