Figurative Language In Ann Petry's The Street

Gerry Boyle and Stephan King are two of the more popular Main authors who both specialize in creating fictional mystery and action novels. Even though both of the author’s novels are set in the state of Maine and can be categorized under the same two words, they both bring you into two very different stories. Focusing on the literary elements imagery, character development and theme we can easily compare and contrast Gerry Boyle’s Port City Shakedown and Blaze by Stephan King. Imagery is a very important literary element in a story and depending on the person, can be the one element that determines whether a book is interesting, or not. Blaze and Port City Shakedown have some similar and some different ways of depicting the state of

Let Me Go by Helga Schneider presents us with a story line of a young lady whose mother abandoned her. The reason for the turn away was because of the mothers turns to Nazism. She became a Concentration Camp guard as a corrections unit. In which she is in charge of all the nasty tortures and foul play that goes on in the Holocaust. When Helga and her mother meet again, Helga is filled with anger and one may say hatred towards her mother.

“The carpet near Bertis’s foot resembles a run-over squirrel, but Karen’s seen worse.” (Coupland 138) The imagery in this novel keeps the reader engaged by prompting their own imagination to visual the setting. Without the author’s skillful choice of words the imagery in this novel would have greatly

Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist who was known for his Darwin’s Bulldog theory based on Charles Darwin’s evolution theory, once said, “ It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a super-inducing of an artificial organization upon the natural organization of the body.” Huxley explains that because of our body, and how it works, humans have been able to find new studies. Huxley’s ideas are similarly seen in the book Stiff, by Mary Roach, which shows the readers that donating one's body involves more than just surgeons removing organs and throwing away a body. Roach shows that donating a body helps enhance further education, newer technology, and greater discoveries.

In the story “Time of Wonder” the writer and illustrator Robert McCloskey creates a mesmerizing picture book. Throughout the book he relates his message to the reader of taking time to enjoy the weather and nature. Likewise, the reader is able to experience these events directly with phrases such as “IT’S RAINING ON YOU” (McCloskey 10). One event the reader is able to conjure up is the ocean in Maine with the taste of salt on their tongue. Moreover, the reader visualizes the calm sea on a sunny day and fears the roaring wind before a hurricane.

Through the use of literary devices such as figurative language, personification, and use of details, the author of The Street displays Lutie Johnson's relationship with the urban setting as overwhelming. Within paragraphs one and two there is a large amount of detail through word choice and imagery. Lutie’s overwhelming relationship is shown through the opening scene which is overflowing with imagery. The first thing the reader will imagine is an empty street with trash blowing around everywhere and a huge scary mess that is giving the urban scenery a very intimidating feel.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female narrator is greatly troubled by the suppression of her imagination by her husband and her ultimate isolation due to this subordination. These feelings are reflected through the author’s use of setting as the narrator’s dreary and malicious descriptions of the house and the wallpaper mirrors her emotional position. Throughout the reading, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s in-depth loss of touch with reality as she sinks further and further into her own reality. As she becomes more isolated, her descriptions of the house become more abstract as she begins to focus on the wallpaper and starts to see herself as being hidden behind it.

But like the sign, this characteristic has weathered away. Petry writes that the sign has a “dark red stain like blood” (55). The metaphor, comparing the stain to blood, is used to give further insight to the occupants and the state of the residence. The metaphor suggests a violent mentality, and a dangerous living space. The sign as a symbol thematically ties into skewed perception.

In Edna’s Ruthie, Esperanza talks about a not so adult character, Ruthie. Ruthie is an adult, but there's something off about her. She acts so much like a child. Ruthie loves balloons, loves to play, and stays home with her mom.

The excerpt begins with Petry introducing the wind as a main antagonist through the careful use of personification. The cold wind “[drives] most of the people off the street”, “set[s] a barrage of paper swirl[ing] into the faces of people”, and even “make[s] it difficult to breathe.” These unpleasant and abrasive acts of the wind succeed in their goal of discouraging the residents of the city. They respond with frustration

One example of figurative language in Laurie Hale Anderson’s book “Speak” is when Melinda decides to rid her garden of all weeds, and does some spring cleaning after it finally stops raining during May. Around the same time, Melinda is realizing that she wants to make some new changes in her life and in this figurative language example, Melinda’s life is her garden. She decides first to rake the leaves “suffocating the bushes” ; Melinda is ridding the demons from herself on the first layer of her skin. She says that she has to “fight the bushes (her problems)” and the bushes don’t like getting cleaned out but it is something one has to do if one makes

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel, Fever 1793 takes place in colonial Philadelphia, during the time of the yellow fever outbreak. Mattie Cook, a young girl during the outbreak has to cope with the many hardships brought onto her by the disease. While the fever brought many terrible things to Mattie and her family, she is able to move past them and build her life up again. By using character development and figurative language, Anderson is able to create the theme that good things can always come out of something bad. The theme that prevails throughout the novel Fever 1793 is that good things can always come out of something bad.

Geography in literature doesn’t always pertain to just the setting. It also serves as a symbol to represent the character’s

This quote from the passage shows that Lutie feels that the elements of her surroundings have a negative effect on the population. Instead of contributing to society, the elements metaphorically, "take" from society in the form of harsh, irritant weather. The author is giving the wind human like qualities by saying it snatched the hats and other things off of the people that were in the streets. Imagery also plays a part within the novel. The passage says, "Fingering its way along the curb the wind set the bits of paper to dancing high in the air, so that a barrage of paper swirled into the faces of the people on the street"(Paragraph 2).