Money
Ghosh uses imagery when writing about the negative elements of capitalism. In this passage, he uses the image of an "invisible hand of fate," which guides a tragic hero to his demise: “Money flows toward short-term gain…and toward the over-exploitation of unregulated common resources. These tendencies are like the invisible hand of fate, guiding the hero in a Greek tragedy toward his inevitable doom" (111). His simile is also a powerful image because it conjures up a noble person who cannot help but head toward their demise.
Weather
Ghosh describes many instances of extreme weather, which is beginning to occur all over the world. Ghosh credits this as a consequence of climate change, supporting his argument that something needs to be done. For example, he describes the occurrence of deadly storms in Mumbai, describing this as being "spooky." His imagery is of things happening that should not be happening—events that are too wild or uncanny or happening in the wrong place.
The Sundarbans
Ghosh writes enticingly of the Sundarbans, giving the reader a mesmerizing depiction of this very foreign place: "dense, tangled and low; the canopy is not above you but around you, constantly clawing at your skin and your clothes. No breeze can enter the thickets of the forest; when the air stirs at all it is because of the buzzing of flies and other insects. Underfoot, instead of a carpet of softly decaying foliage, there is a bank of slippery, knee-deep mud perforated by the sharp points that protrude from mangrove roots" (28).
Mumbai
Ghosh explains how Mumbai is located in a beautiful place that is nonetheless completely wrong for a metropolis: "For this teeming metropolis, this great hub of economic, financial, and cultural activity, sits upon a wedge of cobbled-together land that is totally exposed to the ocean" (39). The image of a huge city on the edge of a hodgepodge landscape practically in the sea showcases how ignorant humans are in terms of where they decide to build their cities.
