IMAGERY

Imagery is the use of descriptive language to represent objects, actions, feelings,

thoughts, ideas, states of mind, and any sensory or extrasensory experience. There
are seven different types of imagery. Imagery includes appeals to the visual,
auditory, tactile, organic, olfactory, gustatory and kinesthetic senses. The Great
Gatsby is rich with imagery. Before we analyze how Fitzgerald uses imagery, we
need to understand all the different types of imagery.

Visual: Seen with the eyes (sight)

Examples:
“The magnified apples appear and disappear...every fleck of russet showing clear.”
“The clouds were low and hairy...like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.”
“The iced branches shed "crystal shells."
“Enchant the land with amethyst.”

Auditory Imagery: Heard with the ears (sound)

Examples:
“The rumbling was a load of apples coming in.”
“The scythe whispered to the ground.”
“I heard the miniature thunder... the clatter of stone.”
“… the roar of trees, the crack of branches…”
“…the sweep of easy wind and downy flake.”

Tactile Imagery: Touch, including hardness, softness, heat or cold

Examples:
"…so love will take between the hands a face."
“Mary touches the harp-like morning-glory strings and plays some tenderness.”
“The bed linens might just as well be ice and the clothes snow.”
“You grasp the bark by a rugged pleat.”

Organic Imagery: Internal sensation, including hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear

Examples:
“My heart owns a doubt, It costs no inward struggle not to go.”
“It's when I'm weary of considerations/ And life is too much like a pathless wood.”
“…to stab me in the sneeze-nerve of a nostril."
“The trees were drinking up the pools and along with it, the flowers.”

Olfactory Imagery: Smelling with the nose (scents)

Example:
“The essence of winter sleep in on the night, the scent of apples fills the air.”
“The musk from hidden grapevine springs forth.”
“A scent of ripeness from over a wall...smelling the sweetness in no theft.”
“The boy takes the tree and heads home, "smelling green."

Gustatory Imagery: Tasting with the mouth (taste)

Examples:
“The blueberries are as big as your thumb...with the flavor of soot.”
“…that taste of Atlantic and Pacific salt.”
“ A haying machine passes over a bird nest without "tasting flesh."

Kinesthetic Imagery: Movement

Examples:
"I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend."
“Leaves got up in a coil and hissed.”
 “…blindly struck at my knee and missed.”
“The black bats tumble and dart.”

Now, look through the first few chapters of The Great Gatsby and find an example of
TWO different types of imagery and fill in the blanks below.

Fitzgerald uses __________________imagery to describe

_________________________________ in the quote
“_________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________”
on page ____________________.

Fitzgerald uses __________________imagery to describe

_________________________________ in the quote
“_________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________”
on page ____________________.

Now, I will give you a piece of paper with the name of a particular type of imagery on
it. We will watch the first 30 minutes of the film version of The Great Gatsby. While
watching the film take careful notes on how the director uses your assigned type of
imagery.

Notes:

Then, get together with the other students who were assigned your type of imagery
and answer the following questions:

What moments did you notice your assigned imagery appear in the film?

How does the director’s use of imagery seem to achieve some purpose or effect? Be
sure that you name clearly what that purpose or effect is. Consider elements such as
foreshadowing, irony, symbolism, characterization and juxtaposition as you develop
your ideas.
Go back to the novel and look at the scene we watched. Where do you see evidence
of the imagery the filmmakers incorporate into their film? What moments do you see
where they have added imagery that Fitzgerald did not intend? Cite page numbers
for reference.

Lastly, in the space below, write a 6-12 sentence formal paragraph in which you
analyze how the director uses imagery to achieve some purpose or effect that you
name clearly. Be sure to consider elements such as foreshadowing, irony,
symbolism, characterization and juxtaposition as you develop your ideas.