Sight Imagery
The opening statement depicts the sense of sight to readers. The author writes, “Mayo Cornelius Higgins raised his arms to the sky and spread them wide. He glanced furtively around. It was all right. There was no one to see his greeting to the coming sunrise. But the motion of his arms caused a flutter of lettuce leaves he had bound to his wrists with rubber bands. Like bracelets of green feathers, the leaves commenced to wave.
The imagery of the dream
M.C.s dreams show readers the dangers of the mountain where his family lives. M.C. is scared that the mountain can tremble any time and kill his family. The author writes, “They began uprooting trees and pushing subsoil in a huge pile to get at the coal. As the pile grew enormous, so had M.C.’s fear of it. He had nightmares in which the heap came trembling down. Over and over again it buried his family on the side of the mountain.”
Hearing Imagery
Hearing imagery is depicted to readers when M.C. hear voices and sounds. The author writes, “M.C. let the sound of the stream become distant. He could hear voices from the Killburn land nearby-snatches of words, their meaning lost on the mist. Dishes made their scrapping noise. Chickens, clucking and fussing for food. Father off, he thought he heard the deep cough and hum of machines.”
