SWPCRAFT PAUSE 10

IMAGERY GETS A LITTLE HELP FROM ITS FRIENDSMARY LADD WATTS

What if?

What if you could not smell?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOVMdGS5A3U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOVMdGS5A3U

Audience Response

What if you lost one of your five senses?

Which would it be?

Why?

What is Imagery?

Image is a word, phrase, or figure of speech (especially SIMILE or METAPHOR) that addresses the senses, suggesting mental pictures of…

Sights

Sounds

Smells

Feelings

Tastes

Actions

Imagery

Imagery offers sensory impressions to the reader and also conveys emotions and moods through verbal pictures.

The use of description that helps the reader imagine how something looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it refers to appearance.

Imagery in Action

“What I take from writers I like is their economy -- the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words -- that`s magical. That`s what I`ve been trying to strive for -- to draw a clear picture, to open up a new dimension”—Mos Def

“Every time I get a script it`s a matter of trying to know what I could do with it. I see colors, imagery. It has to have a smell. It`s like falling in love. You can`t give a reason why.”

--Paul Newman“I liked the name Frog Brigade because it lent itself to a lot of

cool imagery with the whole frog thing.” –Les Claypool

Figuratively Speaking

Simile-Comparison between two unlike things using like or as

Example: One swig from the coffee I brew is like a jolt of lightning through your body. -Ms. Watts

Metaphor-Comparison between two unlike things WITHOUT using “like” or “as”

Example: Shakespeare’s Macbeth-“Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow…”

Painting with PERSONIFICATION

Personification-when an inanimate object is given human characteristics

Example: Ted Kooser “Abandoned Farmhouse”“He was a big man, says the size of his

shoes/on a pile of broken dishes by the house;/ a tall man too, says the length of the bed/ in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,/ says the Bible with a broken back…”

The Sounds of Science

Onomatopoeia-a term referring to the use of a word that resembles or the sounds it denotes

Examples: Peter Meinke “The Cranes”-“They leaned forward in the car, and the shower curtain spread over the front seat CRAKLEd and HISSed.

Gummy Bears Bouncing Here and There

Sight: Walking through the candy aisle I catch a glimpse of a clear shiny plastic bag with a rainbow of colors burning through the package. “What is it?” At that very moment I spot the child like face of the Gummy Bear leader. His smiling face betrays the fact that he knows a tragic and gruesome decapitation awaits him, followed closely by a reuniting of his head with a body of one of his different colored brethren. Like a Frankenstein monster.

Sound: Ripping open the bag causes a resonance like a large cop bending over to grab the last crumb of his doughnut and splitting open his trousers. The sound of chewing the Gummy Bear brings to mind the sloppy noise of a horse tromping through a mud hole. Tearing his tiny face from his little bear body I can hear a tendon snap. Pop!

Smell: After the familiar ripping sound of the bag my olfactory system is bombarded with the sickly sweet smell of fruit trees in blossom. One smell, however, rises above the rest. That aroma is similar to a freshly peeled lemon.

Touch: Touching a Gummy Bear is something you don’t easily forget. The sticky smooth texture is like an overheated ball of wax, or with a little stretch of the imagination, a steamy bathroom mirror.

Taste: The most dramatic sense that a Gummy Bear stimulates is taste. The super-sweet, fresh fruit flavor practically explodes my tongue. And this might sound weird, but I can taste the Gummy part, it is like flavorless gum, or like eating Jell-o when you have a cold. Eating them as a teenager I can taste the fun and adventure of childhood Gummy Bear wars between the warm and cool colored bear armies, and I need the flavor to remind me.

Immersion Activity # 1 Imagery’s Flavor

Use your 5 senses to make notations:What does the smell remind you of?What does it taste like?What memory do you see?What actions do you notice?What sensations do you feel?What do you hear?

Immersion Activity # 2 Speak Figuratively

Use only simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, or personification to describe the imagery of what just happened to your five senses.

A Mixture of Mentors

“A Rose for Emily” –William Faulkner “The Cranes” Peter Meinke “Roselily” Alice Walker “How to Tell a True War Story” Tim O’Brien “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Conner Hamlet, Prince of Denmark William Shakespeare “Girl” Jamaica Kincaid “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin “Killings” AndreDuBus Hard Times Charles Dickins “A Sorrowful Woman” Gail Goodwin “The Lady with the Pet Dog” Anton Chekov “The Lady with the Pet Dog” Joyce Carol Oates “Popular Mechanics” Raymond Carver “Saving Sourdi” May-Lee Chai Anything written by Edgar Allen Poe : ) “Wilderness” and “Chicago” or anything else by Carl Sandburg A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah “ Smell” Diane Ackermen “The Veldt” Ray Bradbury “100 Miles an Hour, Upside Down and Sideways” Rick Bragg

Course Competencies & Objectives

I. Define and apply correctly the literary terms of short fiction, poetry, and drama

1. use terms correctly in class discussions2. use terms correctly in writing assignmentsII. Analyze works of literature and present those

analyses1. write an original analysis of a work of literature2. participate in discussions focused on analyzing

literary works3. present valid answers to analytical test questions