Honners book blog

Toni Morrison, the author of the book beloved uses the literary devises Imagery, symbolism, and similes in her writing to develop the plot of her story. These devises help to develop the characters and plot of the story, and add detail and depth to the writing.
The literary devise imagery is used to describe the surroundings that the characters are in, and the places they go and the people that they meet. An example of how imagery is used in the story is when Sethe meets the girl Amy after running away from
her plantation."Her name was Amy and she needed beef and pot liquor like nobody in this world. Arms like cane stalks and enough hair for four or five heads. Slow moving eyes. She didn’t look at anything quick. Talked so much is was not clear how she could breathe at the same time." In this Quote Morrison paints a very clear picture of Amy, by describing all of the quirks, and mannerisms that are part of Amy's looks and personality.
Morrison uses symbolism often in her writing. One part of the story in which she uses symbolism is when Sethe realized that she stopped seeing colors, when her baby died"Every day she saw the dawn, but never acknowledged or remarked its color. There was something wrong with that. It was as though one day she saw red baby blood, another day the pink grave stone chips, and that was the last of it.”This symbolizes Sethe’s grief for her dead baby by saying that she stopped noticing, and caring about the things that are going on around her after it died.
A simile is when you compare something using like or as. In this book Morrison uses a simile in the part were Amy is describing to Sethe what velvet is like “Well Lu, velvet is like the world just born. Clean new and so smooth." Morrison uses the simile in this case to create a poetic and imaginative description of velvet, rather than just saying that velvet is just soft or beautiful. Having this description in her writing makes this excerpt stand out more.
Throughout the book Morrison uses the literary devises Imagery, symbolism, and similes to develop the characters, and to add depth in her writing as the story progresses. These devises also help to develop the theme of her story which has to do with being haunted by a demon from your past, and the emotional effects slavery had on people.