Imagery

**__IMAGERY__**
==Descriptive language, including literal description, allusion, simile or metaphor, used to represent people, actions, ideas, or objects. It consists of mental pictures that are created by readers, and is related to our sensory perceptions including sound (auditory), touch (tactile), smell (olfactory), taste (gustatory), and sight (visual).==

====Ruth Prawer Jhabvala uses imagery in describing the grave of Mrs. Saunders’ baby to contrast its appearance in Olivia’s time with its appearance in the narrator’s time. Consequently she conveys the drastic change that occurs over time in India, not just to the Westerner but to the Westerner’s possessions too.==== ==== //( P.24 “Of course at that time the marble angel had been new and intact- shining white with wings outspread and holding a marble baby in its arms. Now it is a headless, wingless torso with a baby that has lost its nose and one foot. All the graves are in a very bad condition- weed choked, and stripped of whatever marble and railings could be removed.”)// ====

====Jhabvala also makes use of imagery in describing the environment passed through to reach the Shrine of Baba Firdaus and the environment of the actual shrine. In doing so, Jhabvala contrasts the heat and desertedness of the road to Khatm with the peace and tranquility of the shrine to amplify the shrine’s utopian atmosphere.==== ==== //(P. 41 “The country they drove through lay broiling in the sun. It glittered like glass and seemed to stretch out endlessly”. P.124 “The sun could not reach here through the foliage of the trees; the sound of the little spring trickled cool and fresh…Now it was quite, quite still except for the water and the birds, and sometimes the leaves rustled. I bathed my hands and face in the spring which was so shallow that I could touch the stone cold pebbles in its bed.”)// ====

====Jhabvala also uses imagery to depict the unsightly appearances of many Indians who have suffered from deadly diseases. Thus, she is able to emphasize the deadly effects of India’s diseases and the extent to which Indian citizens have been affected to highlight the shocking appearance of much of India’s environment. Consequently, Jhabvala is also able to reason the difficulties faced by the outsider to adjust to India’s surroundings.==== ==== //(p.79 One of the beggars is a cured leper- a burnt out case whose nose, fingers, and toes have dropped off; he lives in a hut some distance out of town but is allowed to come in and beg, provided he keeps at a proper distance. Then there is an old man who I think has St. Vitus’s dance- his body is twisted around a long pole he carries and he hops along twitching and jigging like a puppet”)// ====

====Jhabvala again uses imagery towards the end of the novel while portraying the mountains in which both the narrator and Olivia eventually reside. By emphasizing the height and color of the mountains as well as the color of the sky, Jhabvala is able to emphasize the beauty and tranquility of this “haven”. She is thus able to elucidate the motives behind both the narrator’s and Olivia’s decisions to end their journeys in the mountains as final escapes from the excessive heat of most of India.==== ====// (p.180 Unable to see, I imagine mountain peaks higher than any I’ve ever dreamed of; the snow on them is also whiter than all other snow- so white it is luminous and shines against a sky which is of a deeper blue than any yet known to me.”) //====