Imagery Through Senses(Alan Weisman )

Rachel Vallario

Coach Morrell

English IV

October 3 2012

            The author of this passage uses imagery a lot though different senses. Some examples with senses are touch, hearing, and smell. The author, Alan Weisman uses those senses to describe certain topics in his writings.

            An example used with imagery with touch is on page 176. “Glide over the bulrushes in perfect formation, touching down so lightly that they detonate no land mines.” Alan Weisman uses touch in his imagery by showing how the bird landed on land mines.  Another example is “a dry lighting strike, igniting decades of uncut, knee-high central park grass, would spread flames through town.” He uses dry to describe the lightning strike and then the touch of uncut grass in central park.

            The author shows taste in imagery also. He shows it on page 178.  “The time bombs left petroleum tanks, chemical plants, power plants and dry- cleaning plants might poison the earth beneath them for eons”.  The earth consumes or tastes all the poisonous toxins which the author says will eventually kill the earth.

            The author shows a lot of sight in the imagery that he used. One example is “as water sluiced away soil beneath pavement, streets would crater.” It paints a picture in my head of what would happen if humans were not on earth anymore. Another example is “otters, Asiatic black bears, musk deer and the nearly vanquished Amur leopard would spread into slopes forested with young daimyo oak and bird cherry.” He describes each animal exact so I know what animal he is describing.

            The author shows a lot of imagery that involve some of the 5 senses. Some examples with senses are touch, hearing, and smell. His goal was to describe what he was imagining in his head to me so I could understand and picture what he was thinking also.