The smell of the tide
Smoky is standing close to the ocean, and he can smell the smell of the tide. The author depicts a sense of smell when writing, "He could smell tide, and shore and sea stratus, sour and salt and bittersweet." The imagery signifies Smoky’s patience and determination to get to Edgewood. He makes several stops to figure out the exact location of Edgewood. At last, he manages to arrive at the mysterious country house in Edgewood.
The imagery of noise
When Alice wakes up, she hears noises like music, and this statement depicts sensory imagery to readers. The author writes, "Daily Alice awoke, as she always did when the sun broke in at her eastward windows with a noise like music." This imagery is important because it shows Alice's daily routine and the surrounding environment. When Alice wakes up, she kicks off her coverlet and inspects her naked body to ensure everything is in place.
The imagery of the room
When Alice takes Smoky around the Drinkwater's grouse, the shape of one of the rooms, which was confusing, surprises him, and the author describes it using sight imagery. The author writes, "The room was of indiscernible shape; the ceiling sank toward one corner sharply, which made one end of the room lower than the other; the windows there were smaller too; the room seemed larger than it was, or was smaller than it looked, he could not decide which." This imagery is important because it reflects John Drinkwater's imagination. John is Alice's great-great-grandfather who built this house, and his imagination inspired him. In his mind, he saw more worlds in the ordinary world and as he moved from one world to the other, everything enlarged.
Similarly, walking away from these imaginary worlds made things look smaller. Since John was an architect, he designed the rooms of this house to resemble his imaginary worlds. Therefore, the imagery is a pure reflection of John Drinkwater's imagination.
