Illumination

I've been noticing with some of the chapters recently in Roberts' Writing About Literature book that I've been skipping over some of the basic elements that papers can be written about. So as much as I already knew about imagery and its effect on the mood and theme of the story, I usually over look these elements for papers. So when Roberts wrote in chapter eight about the three different types of essays one could write on imagery I was pretty intrigued.

"Images suggesting ideas and/or moods. Such an essay should emphasize the effects of the imagery...The types of images. Here the emphasis is on the categories of images themselves...Systems of images. Here the emphasis should be on the areas from which the images are drawn" (133).

These three types illustrate ideas that I've often over looked, but will now pay more attention to in the future. The most important one seems to be the third idea, "systems of images" because it allows the reader to not only draw his or her own opinion of the text, but allows for interpretations to follow that can redefine how a person reads a certain part of a book, story, or poem. For example, the imagery in The Quick and the Dead had a lot of dark tones to it, especially at the end where there is a candle ceremony thing going on. It seems only fitting to have the theme continued at the end. However, the light that the candles hold further enhances the separation between Alice and everyone else further enhancing Williams' story.