Sensory detail is a vital way authors show a story’s theme to the reader. For instance, Amy nauseatingly describes how her relatives “licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food” (Tan 353). The description of the mannerless acts by Amy gives you a clear image of how her relatives are acting during the Christmas dinner. Additionally, by the way Amy described the event it is obvious that she did not want to be compared to her relatives: She wanted, in vain, to be compared to Robert and his family. Through the use of sensory detail, the author shows the reader that one will find it hard to become something they are not.
Indirect characterization is another important way
authors can communicate the theme to a reader. Essentially, Amy, upon hearing that Robert and his family were visiting for Christmas dinner, worried what “Robert would think of… [her] shabby Chinese Christmas… What would he think of [her] noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners… What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food” (Tan 353). The way Amy fretted about Robert being disappointed with her cultural differences gives you an image of Amy’s personality: Insecure, vain and embarrassed by her culture. Also, Amy describes her culture as if it were a bad thing, and describing the American culture as a good and proper thing: She did not want to fit in her Chinese culture, but instead Robert’s American culture. Through the use of indirect characterization, the author shows the reader that one will find it hard to become something they are not.
Sensory Imagery: make the reader envision objects and settings in the book with greater detail.
The essay Four Menus by Sheila Squillante challenges mainstream pieces of writing in various ways. This essay closely resembles poetry with its metaphors and symbolism. This similarity is not a surprise given that Squillante is also a poet. Most essays explain an idea in a structured format which is greatly different from this piece. Four Menus jumps from scenes starting at a Korean restaurant and later at a house. Within the essay she tells flashbacks of times with her friends. These flashbacks are rather random and there seems to be scattered ideas. While pondering all of these aspects of her work I came the conclusion that an essay does not have to be black and white; as long as a main idea is covered it can be left as is. Most of us grew
O'Brien gives great meaning to these details by embedding them in this way. When skimming through these lists, the reader becomes desensitized, but by interspersing these mundane item...
Sensory details are mentioned over sixty times in the short story as the narrator eloquently describes all that he sees, feels, tastes, smells, and hears. “After all this I call to mind flatness and dampness; and all is madness –the madness of a memory which busies itself among forbidden things. Very suddenly there came back to my soul motion and sound-the tumultuous motion of my heart, and in my ears the sound of its beating. Then a pause in which all is blank. Then again sound, and motion, and touch-a tingling sensation pervaded my frame.” In his cell the narrator is afraid of all and he even turns on his senses, jumping at every noise he hears. “By long suffering, my nerves had been unstrung until I trembled at the sound of my voice. I had become in every aspect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited me.” Easy to see, the narrator abandons his senses, afraid of what they will reveal to
Her attention to the most miniscule detail and her grand explanations of spaces impacts her writing style and her reader’s reactions. This particularity is seen in this example: “I woke to a room of sunshine. A wispy-thin curtain veiled a multi paned sliding door of glass...The windows needed washing but slid easily apart and I stepped out onto a tilted balcony, a string mop on a hook to the left of me, and a half-missing board where I had planned to put my right foot. The breath went out of me...About 200 feet below was the sea… (151).” The authors account of this event could have been dull and simple as “There was a hole in the floor of the balcony”, but instead she chose to use detail and descriptors to engage the reader to imagine seeing the strange hotel room that almost turned her relaxing morning into a 200 foot
In Raymond Carver's 'The Bath' and rewritten version of the story entitled 'A Small, Good Thing', the author tells the same tale in different ways, and to different ends, creating variegated experiences for the reader. Both stories have the same central plot and a majority of details remain the same, but the effects that the stories have upon the reader is significantly different. The greatest character difference is found in the role of the Baker, and his interaction with the other characters. The sparse details, language and sentence structure of 'The Bath' provide a sharp contrast emotionally and artistically to 'A Small Good Thing'. In many ways, 'The Bath' proves to have a more emotional impact because of all that it doesn't say; it's sparse, minimalist storytelling gives the impression of numbed shock and muted reactions. The descriptive storytelling of 'A Small Good Thing' goes deeper into the development of the characters and although it tells more story, it ends on a note of hopefulness, instead of fear or desperation. Each story has it's own magic that weave it's a powerful. When compared to each other the true masterpiece of each story is best revealed.
Transforming a story through the use of sensory details enriches the content and creates a realm in which the plot line corresponds with the visual, auditory, and olfactory elements from the text. Both Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol make use of language that is richly descriptive of the story’s surroundings. This type of language is used to describe characters, landscapes, as well as structures and places. As a result of this, another level of complexity is added to the plot and the author has the ability to reveal certain aspects of the plot. An example of this is found in The Knocking when Turgenev describes a part of the rising in action, where the clatter of the cart is synonymous with the uncertainty of the situation and fear that they
Most of the ideas and concepts in it are aimed to suit the audience of
Decade by Amy Lowell When you came, you were like red wine and honey, And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness. Now you are like morning bread, Smooth and pleasant. I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour, But I am completely nourished. Amy Lowell produced the majority of her poems after her acquaintance with the actress Ada Russell, a widow eleven years older than Lowell, with whom she shared the last thirteen years of her life.
“The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy (Roethke).” This sentence bombards the reader’s brain with sensory details. The reader can smell the sour, corrosive odor of whiskey what seeps from the father’s odiferous mouth into the innocent young child’s nostrils. Sensory details help give the reader a sense of what is going on in the story and transports them into the story, allowing the reader to feel, touch, taste, smell, and see what the characters are. A rich description such as in the lines, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed, my right ear scraped the buckle.” reader can feel the hand grasping their wrist and see the bruised knuckle that holds their wrist. By the look of the bruised knuckle, the reader infers that the grasp on the wrist is tight because the bruised knuckles mean the father has been punching something or someone. The reader can also feel something or in this case a buckle scraping their ear as result of the father. The scraping sensation associated with scraping catches the child off guard and startles him, as he is not expecting it. This line al...
Nora is the central character in the book A Doll’s House and it is through her that Ibsen develops many of his themes To what extent is loyalty shown by the lead female characters characters? What are the consequences of this? Within these two books loyalty is a minor theme and one that is easily missed, indeed it is narrow. However, it is still one which weaves a thread through both of the books encompassing major and minor characters, the material and the abstract.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
All of these elements within such a composition make for a very contrasting and sumptuous photograph. It exhibits a theatrical use of color and light, with contrasting textures and shapes. These textures coupled with the colors, lines, and placement of the objects speak to the consumer within the viewer. The placement is hierarchical, and the eye is kept engaged as it loops constantly from the asparagus, to the meat, to the turnip. As the eye loops, the viewer experiences the sensual textures along the way, and looks yet again, wanting to stimulate the senses once more. Every element within the photograph causes the food to appear worthy of display. Also, by placing the food in a decontextualized setting with a nondescript background and foreshortening the food, the viewer is invited to partake.
Sensory imagery was used in lines 7 and 8 to make the reader extra apparent of the smells of the room. I thought that this was important because the smell of something greatly impacts a persons idea about the place, and if the room smells like nature and wood, it will made the reader think of the outdoors and the serenity of being surrounded by nature. I chose the work ‘impaired’ on line 8 because it is a gentle word and it makes the reader feel soothed, even though it is talking about how the room and the life isn’t perfect, it is talking about this in a positive way, not a negative. I think that part of the way the Amish people live is about not needing everything to be perfect and just living life without added complications, so I wanted
The act of killing the sow was intensely described by the author. “They surrounded the covert but the sow got away with the sting of another spear in her flank. The trailing butts hindered her and the sharp, cross-cut points were a torment. She blundered into a tree, forcing a spear still deeper; and after that any of the hunters could follow her easily by the drops of vivid blood” (120). By describing this act of violence, the reader is able to create an extremely sharp and realistic image in their minds of the situation and was able to completely understand the actions of the characters that took part. Another example of a vivid image would be, “The clear waves mirrored the clear sky and the angular bright constellations. The line of phosphorescence bulged about the sand grains and little pebbles; it held them each in a dimple tension, then suddenly accepted them with an inaudible syllable and moved on” (137). This description, once again, formed a detailed image in the mind of the readers, which allowed for a better comprehension of the