Language And Imagery In The Cellist Of Sarajevo

The visual I have created is meant to display how the author Seven Galloway effectively used descriptive language and imagery in the novel The Cellist of Sarajevo to demonstrate character development in Dragan, one of the protagonists. For instance, in the first image moving forward from the 12’oclock section of the clock, we can see an image of Dragan in Sarajevo with the intent of setting the mood of war, where “everything around him is a peculiar shade of grey”. This imagery is meant to display not only the visual cast set upon Sarajevo in a time of war, but also to show Dragan’s internal demeanor and how he initially perceives the world around him, while the idea of a ‘grey’ world surrounding him outlines his pessimistic worldview. These ideas are also manifest in the following image, where we

The first image shows Dragan dragging a dead body off the streets with the corresponding quote explaining how he understands that “there’s right and wrong… the world is binary”. The idea that the world is ‘binary’ is significant because it brings up imagery of black and white, with no shading, which visually contrasts with his ideas beforehand where he stated the war made everything around him appear gray. This outlines how Dragan’s idea on the had changed overtime, while before he believed he was in the ‘shaded region of war’ and that he was not on one side or the other, he now believes that there are only two sides that he could be on, which are right or wrong with respect to the civilians of Sarajevo and the snipers on the hills. The following Image serves to strengthen Dragan’s new mindset, where he notes that if the citizens of Sarajevo are “contempt to live with death… the Sarajevo will die”. This demonstrates how he believes the world is binary, and those who do not stand for Sarajevo are ultimately supporting it’s