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How to analyse and evaluate the author’s use of imagery

What is imagery?

• Where the author uses any of these techniques:

• Metaphor.• Simile. “Figurative language”• Personification.

• You must be able to write about figurative language for close reading and textual analysis tasks, and also for analysing the texts that we study in class.

Important!!!• In close reading and textual analysis tests, when

you are asked to write about figurative language, they will ask you about “Imagery”. They do not use the phrase “figurative language”.

• If you are asked about the “Language” used by the author, you can write about figurative language or word choice or sentence structure.

What do I have to write?

Always use the three=step-method

The girl sailed through her Higher English exam.

Step 1Quote the figurative language and then state

what technique has been used.

(i.e. Metaphor? Simile? Personification?)

e.g. “The girl sailed” is a metaphor.

Step 2

State what is being described (x) and what it is being compared to (y).

e.g. Her performance in the exam (x) is being compared to a boat sailing through water (y).

Step 3Explain the relevant connotations of y (Just as...)Then explain how the connotations of y are

transferred on to x (So too...)

e.g. Just as a boat sailing through water would be smooth and fluid (y), so too did the girl pass her exam with ease and without any problems (x).

Example

Explain how the author uses imagery to explain the effect of alcohol during his depression (2)

During my depression, I found that alcohol became an overcoat that I wore everywhere and very rarely took off.

Step 1

“alcohol became an overcoat” is a metaphor.

Step 2

The author is comparing the effects of alcohol to wearing a coat.

Step 3

Just as an overcoat would be warm and comforting, so too does the alcohol make him feel safe and protected against his depression.

Full answer

“alcohol became an overcoat” is a metaphor. The author is comparing the effects of alcohol to wearing a coat. Just as an overcoat would be warm and comforting, so too does the alcohol make him feel safe and protected against his depression.

Questions

1. Explain the effectiveness of the imagery in the following sentence (2)

The girl sailed through her Higher English exam.

• “the girl sailed” is a metaphor. The author is comparing her performance in the exam to a boat travelling through water. Just as a boat sails through water smoothly and fluidly, the girl coped with the exam effortlessly, with no problems.

2. Show how the writer uses imagery to suggest that the mother found looking after her baby to be hard work (2)

She bravely entered the supermarket and set about finding the long list of items on her list. She knew that bringing the baby meant this would be a challenge; but she had no option but to bring him. She thought that maybe this time it would be different, but before long the baby was an octopus, grabbing at all the cans on the supermarket shelves.

• “the baby was an octopus” is a metaphor. The writer is comparing the baby to a type of fish with many limbs. Just as an octopus would be uncontrollable and would create chaos if put in a supermarket, the baby immediately begins to cause trouble by picking up things without her mother’s permission.

3. Show how the writer’s use of imagery conveys the Victorians’ disgust at the city they had created. (2)

• Having invented the modern city, 19th century Britain promptly reeled back in horror at what it had done. To the Victorians exploring the cholera-ridden back alleys of London’s East End, the city was a hideous tumour sucking the life out of the countryside and creating in its place a vast polluted landscape of squalor, disease and crime. In their eyes, the city was a place to be feared, controlled and, if possible, eliminated.

• “a hideous tumour” is a metaphor. The author is comparing the city to a form of cancer. Just as a tumour is a growth of diseased cells that can lead to illness and death, the author is suggesting that London was seen to be unhealthy and diseased and that it was destructive and harmful to the rest of the country.

• “sucked the life out of” is personification. The writer is comparing the city to a type of blood-sucking creature. Just as a parasite or vampire feeds on it’s host, the writer is suggesting that London was seen to be feeding off of the rest of the country, leaving it injured and dying.

4. Show how the image of the “à la carte menu” illustrates the point the writer is making in lines 47-51 (2)

• And all of these worlds overlap in space and time. London is different for all its people. They make the most of the elements in it that have meaning for them and ignore the rest. A city is an à la carte menu. That is what makes it different from a village, which has little room for tolerance and difference. And a great city is one in which as many people as possible can make the widest of choices from its menu.

• “a city is an a la carte menu” is a metaphor. The writer is comparing the city to a menu with a great deal of choice. Just as an a la carte menu has a large variety of dishes to choose from, the author is suggesting that cities contain a large variety of lifestyles, cultures, religions that its inhabitants can choose from.