The Use Of Imagery In Leyvik Yehoash's 'Lynching'

Authors use many different types of imagery in order to better portray their point of view to a reader. This imagery can depict many different things and often enhances the reader’s ability to picture what is occurring in a literary work, and therefore is more able to connect to the writing. An example of imagery used to enhance the quality of a story can be found in Leyvik Yehoash’s poem “Lynching.” In this poem, the imagery that repeatably appears is related to the body of the person who was lynched, and the various ways to describe different parts of his person. The repetition of these description serves as a textual echo, and the variation in description over the course of the poem helps to portray the events that occurred and their importance from the author to the reader. The repeated anatomic imagery and vivid description of various body parts is a textual echo used by Leyvik Yehoash and helps make his poem more powerful and effective for the reader and expand on its message about the hardship for African Americans living

This imagery has to do with aggression that the narrator alleges God of perpetrating against the victim of this lynching. The narrator claims that “you (God) dug your nails in his ribs” and “pierced knives into his breast,” (Yehoash 107 line 24-26). These lines discuss the victims body as if it were violated by God, and the harm caused to the body was a result of Gods actions. This is a very contentious claim made by the author as he uses this imagery to parallel a crucifixion and blame a higher power. The textual echo has traversed from describing an anonymous body in harm, to explaining that harm has lead to death, to finally finding somebody to blame for that death. This textual echo both helps the reader to visual the victim of this lynching, while also understanding the train of thought that the author is going through in this