Imagery and Diction in Red Sorghum Anonymous 12th Grade

Through war torn villages and billowing sorghum fields, author Mo Yan depicts the subtle joys and harsh realities of the life of a Chinese family during the Second Sino-Japanese War in his novel, Red Sorghum. The intensity of the challenges and hardships that face this particular family are explored through the vivid imagery and potent diction that Yan employs. One of the most core elements of Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum is the use of graphic imagery to capture staggeringly violent exchanges between the Chinese and Japanese soldiers, as well as between fellow Chinese countrymen.

This imagery is delivered in one of the novel’s early scenes through Yan’s cogently striking diction that articulately details the slaughter of Uncle Arhat. Arhat, a loyal friend of the novel’s central family, is enslaved by the Japanese soldiers to build a highway, and although he escapes, is later caught and brutally murdered. The narrator describes Uncle Arhat as a “huge skinned frog” as he was “hacked to pieces” (Yan, 9). The characterization of Arhat as a frog emphasizes his devolution from humanity as his flesh is stripped away to produce a bloody and barely human figure. The use of onomatopoeia in the word “hacked” instills a sense of the harsh violence...