Armor
Imagery is used for personal communication in a letter left for one character by a mysterious pen pal. “Do you ever feel as if you wear armor, day after day? That when people look at you, they see only the shine of steel that you’ve so carefully encased yourself in? They see what they want to see in you—the warped reflection of their face, or a piece of the sky, or a shadow cast between buildings.” This imagery transforms feelings of insecurity into the more concrete metaphor of wearing armor as protection. What is interesting about this rather familiar metaphor is the way that it is reversed so that the reflection in the shine allows the armor to become symbolic representations of both the wearer and anyone facing off against them.
Grief
The mysterious pen pal seems to have the eye of a poet. In another letter, a talent for imagery is applied to grief. “Your grief will never fully fade; it will always be with you — a shadow you carry in your soul — but it will become fainter as your life becomes brighter.” In this example, grief becomes an overpowering emotion that slowly fades over time. If one does not give in to the melancholy, eventually the shadow will become almost impossible to detect.
Evening
“It was eventide, the moment between darkness and light, when the constellations began to dust the sky and the city lamps flickered to life in reply.” This imagery is slightly dependent upon not knowing the meaning of eventide. The image of a time that is neither dark nor bright, when stars start twinkling and city lights begin to automatically switch on has a more familiar name. The imagery, and the word eventide, inform readers simply that it is now evening.
War with the Gods
A tapestry of imagery is used to describe what a war with the gods is like. Such a conflict is described as “a town that must lock itself up during the night, to hide its light…a school-turned-infirmary filled with wounded bodies and souls and lives” as well as being “time that suddenly feels sharper than a knife grazing your skin.” All this imagery serves to cement the idea that war with the gods is more than history would make it. One must be prepared for more than mere sieges, secret missions, and battles lasting for days without end.
