Animals
Animal imagery recurs throughout the play. It not just the animals themselves, but the context in which the animal is situated and described that takes on significance. Odie compares those who chose self-exile rather than staying to face the music as “cowardly chimpanzees.” Stella and Wak toasting and hugging each other is like “frenzied baboons” in a trance. Wak grins like a gecko while refugees are as timid as chameleon. The references range from the expected—a dog in heat—to the truly offbeat: “an audience of octopuses.” In every case, the image is negative. The animals are references for the purpose of dehumanizing.
Alliteration
One of the most powerful uses of imagery takes full advantage of the dramatic possibilities for stage performance. Although it would still be effective as prose, that effect is increased by hearing it spoken. The use of this device does not fulfill any one particular role, but is generally dependent upon the context of the specific situation. The overall effect, however, is to create a sort of Brechtian distancing which forces the audience to remember they are watching a created fiction for the purpose of engaging the play intellectually rather than just on an emotional level. Some examples of this use of imagery include:
“I have really got you nice and proper, cornered, cowed and Condemned. I can see eyes of contrition begging for clemency”
“Buzzing and bursting with bazookas.”
“Death at dawn. Death at noon. Death at Dusk. Shroud of darkness not needed nowadays.”
Sausage and Bacon
Perhaps the most immediately tangible use of imagery in the play in Odie’s use of the phrase “sausage and bacon” to describe the lifestyle of those who chose to flee into exile during the coup which overthrew the ruling government. The reality of this image in this context is that pork represents a kind of lifestyle not available to those without some measure of privilege and status. Odie uses this imagery as propaganda for the purpose of going beyond merely accusing those in exile as cowards too afraid to stay and fight. “Sausage and bacon” implies that they followed up cowardice with the additional abomination of living a better life than those who stayed behind.
“The uterus rules the world”
This pronouncement is one of the most striking individual uses of specific imagery in the play and it is loaded with hidden meaning. Some of that meaning cannot be expressed here without spoiling some important revelations, but on its most basic level it is another example of the talent Odie has for propaganda. He asserts this as part of a plan to keep Stella on his side by trying to convince her that siblings who shared the same womb—have the same mother—are closer than siblings who share a father, but different mothers. It goes deeper, however, because the imagery is also connected to Odie’s maneuvering to block Wak from sharing the inheritance. Without giving away too much, contained with this concept is the idea that for Odie, the father is of less significance than the mother. This is perhaps the most important thematic element that this imagery conveys.
