Figurative Language

I think imagery is the most effective form of figurative language. With the use of imagery, the reader can actually visualize what is happening in the story.
Imagery is a representation of an object or scene, which conveys only itself. It is a physical depiction of something, as in a photographic image. For example, in the story “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self,” it says, “my father, a fat, funny man with beautiful eyes and a subversive wit.” This gives the reader a vivid image of a fat jolly man. Another example is in the story “Graduation” where the author is describing the reaction of the graduates as they hang there heads in shame, “every girl in my row had found something new to do with her handkerchief. Some folded the tiny squares into love knots, some into triangles, but most were wadding them, then pressing the flat on their yellow laps.” This gives the reader a mental picture of how the situation looked and felt. She describes it in suc...