The Labratory
Imagery associated with magic or witchcraft is used to describe Alfred’s basement laboratory. The following quote about his laboratory appeals to the sense of sight, smell, and touch. “The gray dust of evil spells and the cobwebs of enchantment thickly cloaked the old electric arc furnace, and the jars of exotic rhodium and sinister cadmium and stalwart bismuth, and the hand printed labels browned by the vapors from a glass-stoppered bottle of aqua regia, and the quad-ruled notebook in which the latest entry in Alfred’s hand dated from a time, fifteen years ago, before the betrayals had begun” (8). This imagery presents Alfred as sinister, a sort of evil genius, which is how Chip views him.
The Lawn
Gary’s lawn at his Pennsylvania home is described using imagery to depict its stillness. “All the foliage near the house was chalky now with outpouring indoor light, but there was still enough twilight in the western trees to make them silhouettes. In the garage he took the eight-foot stepladder down from its brackets and danced and spun with it.” (228) Not only is the sense of sight used, but also that of touch and sound in the description of “lying down on the dayheat-radiating lawn and listening to the crickets and the ratcheting cicadas.”
Bad Food
Throughout the novel, visceral imagery is used to describe food the characters do not care for. This makes the reader truly feel for how disgusting it is in the characters eyes. Burnt and undercooked chicken is described as “cinders and bloody chicken that he was too tired to chew and swallow,” (227) and “unchewed bird-flesh” (227). A young Chip describes his mother’s cooking with “cauterized liver had the odor of fingers that had handled dirty coins” (251). “Brown grease-soaked flakes of flour were impastoed on the ferrous lobes of liver like corrosion. The bacon also, what little there was of it, had the color of rust” (253). These nauseating descriptions, which play to the senses of sight, smell, and taste, add drama and a feeling of disgust to these scenes.
Injured Hand
Metaphor and imagery is used to convey the pain and exact feeling of Gary’s injured hand. “His hurt hand pulsed. It felt elephantine; he had a hand the size and weight of an armchair, each finger a soft log of exquisite sensitivity.”(232) Describing the feeling in this way not only allows the reader to picture it, but to understand how fuzzy and disoriented Gary is. The hyperbole speaks to Gary’s worsening mental health condition and drunkenness.
