Steinbeck's Use Of Personification example essay topic

Imagery- Page 3- "I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer-and what trees and seasons smelled like-how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich". By starting the text with a vivid description of the scenery and life in the Salinas valley Steinbeck captures the audience's attention with his use of imagery. By making the reader interpret the setting and allowing them to smell the trees and the seasons, he enhances the beginning of the book by making the reader join into the text. Imagery- Page 5- "Then June came the grasses headed out and turned brown, and the hills turned a brown which was not brown but a gold and saffron and red - an indescribable color".

Another example of imagery in the first chapter of the book, which shows how Steinbeck enjoys the use of imagery to start his book. The use of imagery in the beginning of the book enhances the reader's mood, and allows them to enjoy the writing, which is most likely, the reason why it is used as a hook in this text. Also, when Steinbeck says "an indescribable color", he lets the mind wonder and think what that color might be. Simile- Page 9- "It was an unlikely place for a man from a green country to come to, but he came about thirty years before the turn of the century and he brought with him his tiny Irish wife, a tight hard little woman humor-less as a chicken. This example of a simile makes the text more meaningful by giving a reference when describing Hamilton's wife. Without having the reference it would be hard to understand what Hamilton's wife is really like, but with the reference we can interpret that she is strict and humor-less, without reading any further into the text.

Personification- Page 54- "A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy-that's the time that seems long in memory". This excerpt uses personification three times in one sentence. Time has been splashed with interest; it has been wounded with tragedy, and crevassed with joy. These examples make the reader better understand the concept of time. Steinbeck's use of personification gives the reader better examples of the idea, so they can better understand what is being explained.

Parallelism- Page 89- "He had invented his business-the circuit route through the small towns, the short stay of each girl, the discipline, the percentages. He felt his way along and made few mistakes. He never sent his girls into the cities. He could handle the hungry constables of the villages, but he had respect for the experienced and voracious city police". There are actually two instances of parallelism in this excerpt. The first excerpt is all in one sentence.

Steinbeck writes the sentence in the same form, giving the many examples of what Mr. Edwards had set up in his prostitution ring. Not only does he use it in this sentence, but also he uses it in the next three sentences to show the many intricacies of the business. Irony- Page 159- "When they inspected his handbooks they found that he had over ninety-three thousand dollars in the bank and ten thousand dollars in good securities. They felt very different about Mr. Trask then. People with that much money were rich. They would never have to worry.

It was enough to start a dynasty". After a childhood of mediocrity and growing up with no real luxuries, Adam and Charles Trask discover that their father had been hiding an enormous sum of money from them their entire lives. This shows the irony that Adam and Charles, who suspected that their father was a nothing, really had come across a large sum of money in his many years. And also the fact that they grew up without any luxuries, and all of a sudden are wealthy defines irony.

Symbolism- Page 185- "Missy Adam say come! Missy Cathy bad- come quick. Missy yell, scream". This excerpt symbolizes how Asian Americans, although through and through Americans, were looked down upon during the time period that this book takes place. Lee, who is quoted in this passage, speaks perfectly good English and is very well educated, but for a time in this book he speaks broken English so he would be accepted as the Trask's butler. Later, in the book Lee finally opens up and shows his scholar and even has the dream of opening up a bookstore.

This symbolizes the possibility of overcoming racial prejudice with the help of kind souls such as the Trask's. Simile- Page 303- "With a saddle he feels as though you were riding a sled over a gravel pit". This passage enhances the text by describing how the horse that Mr. Hamilton purchased runs. Without the simile it would be hard to infer the horse's capability when running, but with the simile you can determine that Mr. Hamilton's horse was a bust. Rhetorical Questioning- Page 269- "Lee said softly", Couldn't a world be built around accepted truth?

Couldn't some pains and insanities be rooted out if the causes were known?" By making these statement Lee is making his point come across much more clear. The use of rhetorical questioning allows the mind to ponder the idea put on the table, without steering too far off track. Personification- Page 418- "Salinas had two grammar schools, big yellow structures with tall windows, and the windows were baleful and the doors did not smile". Giving the school buildings physical attributes and motions is a prime example of personification. This also enhances the text by giving the reader a visual image of the school buildings so that they can interpret by themselves what they look like. Steinbeck is keen on developing mental images for the reader so that they can envision the ins and outs of the text, based on what they have read.