The Covenant of Water

The Covenant of Water Imagery

Surgery (visceral imagery)

Throughout the text, various characters, primarily Mariamma, Digby, and Rune, perform multiple surgeries which are described in blunt, clinical terms to emphasize the unromantic and often gruesome nature of essential medical care. Often, characters must remain composed when confronted with bodily fluids, open wounds, and infections. This visceral imagery often evokes a sense of revulsion, highlighting the reality that surgery is a vocation that not every person can pursue. For example, when Digby performs his first surgery in Madras, he punctures a swollen scrotum and a "jet of clear yellow fluid hits him in the face," and similarly, when Philipose helps perform surgery on the boatman's baby, he feels "tissues rip" as "blood wells up, dark and menacing."

The Storm and the Boatman (auditory imagery)

During the unexpected storm, Philipose hears the boatman screaming for someone to help rescue his child over the "roar of the main river" which is "impossibly loud" and "makes human groans." The sound of the boatman's cries are "terrifying but human." Philipose finds the combination of the boatman's screaming, and the baby's "desperate battle for air" so overwhelming he cannot think, and he reacts impulsively, jumping into the raging river. When the baby finally breathes, Philipose calls the "rattle of air" the "sound of life." The auditory imagery of the scene heightens the reader's sense of overwhelming urgency and Philipose's emotional state. This overwhelming auditory landscape is particularly impactful, as prior to this scene, Philipose's experiences with noise are limited by his partial deafness.

Parambil (sensory imagery)

Parambil is a secluded estate composed of diverse flora and fauna and surrounded by waterways. To the Parambil family, the property is a secluded paradise that creates a sense of safety as they separate themselves from the inhospitable world. The local environment is described in lush sensory imagery, conveying the emotional impact the estate has on its residents and their sense of connection to the land and each other. For example, when Mariamma first arrives at Parambil, she is struck by the land's abundance, enjoying a multi-sensory experience of her new home. She notes the "rows of banana trees...nuzzling and knocking against each other" and laden with fruit, the perfume of a chempaka tree, overgrown pandanus shrubs, and "plants laden with orange-colored coconuts." This sensory imagery captures Big Ammachi's sense of wonder, safety, and the infinite potential she sees for her future.

Similarly, when Philipose returns to Parambil after his ill-fated trip to Madras, he views the "lush landscape" with newfound appreciation, sensing that "the flesh and bones of his ancestors have leached into the soil, made their way into the trees, into the iridescent plumage of the parrots on swaying branches, and dispersed themselves into the breeze."

Leprosy (visceral imagery)

Throughout the text, the bodies of people with leprosy are described using unsentimental language, emphasizing the disfigurement and loss of body parts the disease causes. When Rune first notices a man suffering from leprosy, he remarks how "stumps, not fingers, clutch the staff," and his "misshapen, ulcerated feet wrapped in bloodied gunnysack" below an ankle "grotesquely dislocated, bone sticking through skin." This kind of visceral imagery serves to viscerally communicate the unavoidable isolation leprosy causes, as such physical disfigurements inspire fear and revulsion in others. However, the visceral imagery also works to inspire sympathy and a sense of shared humanity. Visceral imagery is used to explain how people with leprosy emote and move through the world, such as Sankar's face "frozen forever into a snarl" even when he smiles.