DISCOVERING VOICE: Voice Lessons for Middle and High School

DISCOVERING VOICE:Voice Lessons for Middle and High School Nancy Dean

DICTIONrefers to the authors choice of words

A redheaded woman was there with Trout. Kate could see her rummaging throughout the cabin dumping drawers and knocking things from the shelves of cabinets -Louis Sachar, Holes • What picture do you get in your mind when you read the second sentence? • How would the meaning of the sentence change if we changed some of the words? For example: Kate could see her searching through the cabin, emptying drawers and taking things off the shelves of cabinets.

M.C. heard him scramble and strain his way up the slope of Sarah’s mountain. -Virginia Hamilton, M.C. Higgins, the Great • What does it mean to scramble and strain up a mountain? Close your eyes and try to get a picture of someone scrambling and straining up a mountain. • How would it change your mental picture if we rewrote the sentence like this? M.C. heard him walk up the slope of Sarah’s mountain.

For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the Store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather got to know, the lady who threw me my first lifeline. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings • What is the dictionary definition of the verb sop? This word is not usually used to describe a person’s actions. What effect does this have on the reader? • What is a lifeline? How is Angelou’s use of the word different from its usual use? How does this diction affect your understanding of the sentence?

He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to herd his teeth into place with his thumb. He asked his mother if he could have braces, like Frankie Molina, her godson, but he asked at the wrong time. -Gary Soto, “Broken Chain,” Baseball in April and Other Stories • What is Gary Soto implying about the narrator’s teeth when he uses the verb herd in the first sentence? • How would the meaning change if the sentence were written like this? He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to push his teeth into place with his thumb.

They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, ‘sclsively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-batchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time what with standing half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and Eland the Koodoo grew darker…. -Rudyard Kiplin, “How the Leopard Got His Spots,” Just So Stories • What is the dictionary definition of scuttled? How would your mental picture change if the passage said, They trudged for days and days…? • Consider the hyphenated adjectives Kipling uses in this passage: patchy-batchy and slippery-slidy. How do these adjectives help the reader understand the scene?

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “far away across the city I see a young man in a garret*. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes.”-Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince,” The Happy Prince and Other Tales*an attic room • Look carefully at the diction in this passage. Is the young man rich or poor? How do you know? 2. What does it mean to have crisp hair? Sketch a picture of someone with crisp hair.

There was a scurrying around and then eight of them snatched up their guns, formed up into twos and marched out behind the office. He wheeled his horse about and trotted toward me. I jumped back and plunged for the tavern doorway. -James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, My Brother Sam is Dead • Look at the boldface word (snatched) in the first sentence. Notice how clearly you can “see” the action because of that strong ver. How would it change the meaning of the sentence if it read… eight of them picked up there guns? • What does the use of the word plunged in the third sentence tell you about the narrator’s attitude toward the other characters in this passage?

Brown as a coffee-berry, rugged, pistoled, spurred, wary, indefeasible*, I saw my old friend, Deputy-Marshal Buck Caperton, stumble with jingling rowels**, into a chair in the marshal’s outer office. -O. Henry, “The Lonesome Road,” 41 Stories by O. Henry*something that can’t be cancelled **a sharp-toothed wheel in the end of a spur 1.Look at the first 2 boldface words (pistoled and spurred). Both of these words described Deputy-Marshal Caperton. What do they mean? How would the meaning change if O. Henry has said, I saw my old friend Deputy-Marshal Buck Caperton, who wearing a pistol and spurs, stumble, with jingling rowels, into a chair in the marshal’s office? 2. The word indefeasible is usually used to describe a contract of some kind of legal document. O. Henry uses it to describe a character. What does it mean in this context? In other words, how can a person be indefeasible? What does this choice of words add to the impact of the sentence?

n you think at the ivory-n-ebonycrooning “I Left My Heart…” to momma, winkin n smiling n jazzin n profilinn sangin n sanginn sangin n soundinsweeeeeeeee t. -Crystal Williams, “The Famous Door,” Kin • The words in this poem imitate the way someone talks. Why do you think Williams uses these kinds of words instead of standard English words? What does the diction add to the total effect of the passage? • How would the impact of the passage change if we wrote the lines like this? and you at the piano, singing to momma, winking and smiling, and singling, and sounding sweet

How well I recollect the kind of day it was! I smell the fog that hung about the place; I see the hoar frost, ghostly, through it; I feel my rimy hair fall clammy on my cheek; I look along the dim perspective of the schoolroom, with a sputtering candle here and there to light up the foggy morning, and the breath of the boys wreathing and smoking in the raw cold as they blow upon their fingers and tap their feet upon the floor. -Charles Dickens, David Copperfield • What words help you understand that the room was cold and dark? • What is a sputtering candle? How does describing the candle help you understand the feeling of the whole room?

DETAILwhat makes writing come alive

I used to like going to have my hair cut. I liked the mirrors in the room and all the smells of lotions and shampoos. I liked to sit there-young and fresh and pretty- and see what the women were having done, to make themselves look younger and prettier. I liked the way my mother’s hairdresser teased me about boyfriends and dances. Not anymore, though. Somebody held the door open so my mother could wheel me in, and a few people who had met me came around to say how sorry they were. -Cynthia Voigt, Izzy, Willy Nilly • Which details support the attitude that the narrator used to like having her hair cut? Underline those details and talk about there effectiveness. • Which detail changes the direction of the passage? Note that the narrator’s reason for not liking haircuts anymore is not explained. Nevertheless, you know what has happened. What effect does that have on you, the reader?

He was an old man. His black, heavily wrinkled face was surrounded by a halo of crinkly white hair and whiskers that seemed to separate his head from the layers of dirty coats piled on his smallish frame. His pants were bagged to the knee. Where they were met with rags that went down to the old shoes. The rags were held on with strings, and there was a rope around his middle -Walter Dean Myers, “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” Face to Face:A collection of Stories by Celebrated Soviet and American Writers • Underline all the vivid details in the passage. How do details help you understand the focus on the passage? • There are several contrasting details in the passage, details that five two completely different pictures of the man. For example, the passage says the man is wearing layers of dirty coats, which makes him sound padded and heavy; but he is also described as having a smaller frame, which makes him seem frail. Identify other contrasting details in the passage, and discuss what these contrasts add to the overall effect of the description.

When he ran, he even loved the pain, the hurt of the running, the burning in his lungs and the spasms that sometimes gripped his calves. He loved it because he knew he could endure the pain and even go beyond it. He had never pushed himself to the limit but he felt all this reserve strength inside of him: more than strength actually- determination. And it sang in him as he ran, he heart pumped blood joyfully through his body. -Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War • What is the main idea (topic sentence) or focus of this paragraph? State it as simply as you can. How do the details in this paragraph support the main idea? • The details in the first sentence describe the physical sensation of pain. The next three sentences, however, focus on another characteristic of pain. What is this other characteristic of pain? How do the details of the last three sentences help the reader understand the other characteristic of pain?

Meanwhile, Confucius pursued his studies. Whenever he had a chance, he visited the state capital, Qufu, a lively town thronged with people talking, laughing, and shouting; buying, selling and gambling; eating at food stalls in every street; and watching acrobats, jugglers, and magicians at the marketplace, where vendors hawked such delicacies as bears’ paws, the fins of sharks, the livers of peacocks and the bees fried in there own honey -Russell Freedman, Confucius: The Golden Rule • What is the focus of the detail in this description of the state capital, Qufu? • How would the feeling and impact of this passage change if Freedman had ended the second sentence right after people.

I loved the smell of fruits and vegetables and would savor everything, sniff at it, before I ate. We had a pear tree in the garden, and my mother would make a thick pear nectar from its fruit, in which the smell of pears seemed heightened. But the scent of pears, I had read, could be made artificially, too (as was done with “pear drops”), without using any pears. One had only to start with one of the alcohols-ethyl, methyl, amyl, whatever- and distill it with acetic acid to form the corresponding ester. -Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood • The first sentence of the passage is a broad statement, stating the speaker’s love of the way fruits and vegetables smell in general. How does the rest of the passage enrich and strengthen the first sentence? • What is the speaker’s attitude toward science? What specific details reveal this attitude?

She’s this wrinkled old bat with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath but it was right after lunch and she kept burpin’ little bursts of garlic -Sharon M. Draper, Tears of a Tiger • Look at the following rewriting of Draper’s sentences: She’s an old woman with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath, but I couldn’t get away from her. Which one is more alive and engrossing? Which one best you into the scene? Why? 2. Sketch a little picture of the scene. What details are in your sketch? Why are they memorable?

I almost cried at what I saw. His coat was dirty and mud-caked. His skin was stretched drum-tight over his bony frame. The knotty joints of his hips and shoulders stood out a good three inches from his body. -Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows • Think of one word to describe the dog in the passage. Which details in the passage support your choice of words? • The details of this passage describe the dog from the outside (his coat) in-through his skin to his bones. How do these details affect the reader’s attitude toward the dog?

It was full of every kind of desert plant that ever sprang out of dry hot earth. It was overrun with prairie dogs, squirrels, and horned toads, snakes, and a variety of smaller forms of life. The space over this land knew only the presence of hawks, eagles, and buzzards. It was a region of loneliness, emptiness, truth, and dignity. It was nature at its proudest, driest, loneliest, and loveliest. • Saroyan describes the scene as nature at its proudest, driest, loneliest, and loveliest. Which details support this statement? • Notice that the first sentence does not mention specific plants, but the second sentence mentions several desert animals. Why do you think Saroyan does this?

It isn’t a pretty pass. The ball is moving so slowly I can clearly see its white laces turning through the air. I can see Tommy Zodac and Johnny Sanders, the middle linebackers, straining to reach for it, but it falls softly like a spent balloon into the fingers of Jared Bonton, Hudson’s tight end. -Jan Ceripko, Imitate the Tiger • What is the main idea of focus on this paragraph? What details support the main idea and bring the reader into the narrator’s experience? • How would the meaning and impact of the passage change if Ceripko had written the paragraph like this? It is a terrible, slow pass. Members of our team try to catch the ball, but it falls right into the hands of one of their team’s players.

Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.Arithmetic tells you how many you will lose or win if you know how any you had before you lost of won.Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven- or five six bundle sticks.Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer. -Carl Sandburg, “Arithmetic,” The Complete Poems of Carl Sangburg • What is the purples of these lines of poetry? Who is the audience? What do these questions have to do with detail? • Look at this line. (Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.) How does this sequence of details add the meaning of the lines?

METAPHORS, SIMILIES & PERSONIFICATIONFigurative Language

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. -Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have A Dream” • Identify two examples of figurative language in the passage. Are the figures of speech metaphors or simile? How do you know the language is figurative? 2. What does the figurative language add to the passage?

I was seven, I lay in the carwatching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin. -Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,” Words Under the Words: Selected Poems • What is the metaphor in this poem? What is the literal term? What is the figurative term? What does the metaphor mean? • How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if Nye said simply, My stomach really hurt?

Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists. -Ray Bradbury, “The Dragon,” The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories • Is the word night literal of figurative? If it is literal, what does it literally mean? If it is figurative, explain why. • When Bradbury says, darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrist, what does he literally mean? This entire clause is a metaphor, which means there has to be a comparison between essentially unlike things. What is the comparison? What are the literal and figurative terms of the metaphor?

He gossips like my grandmother, this manwith my face, and I could standamused all afternoonin the Hon Kee Grocery,amid hanging meats hechops… -Li-Young Lee, “The Cleaving,” The City in Which I Love You • Look at the first line. Is like my grandmother a simile? Explain. 2. Is this man/with my face figurative? If so, is it a metaphor or a simile? Explain.

Frantic, Cole struggled to fly, but he couldn’t escape the nest. All he could do was open his beak wide and raise it upward toward the skin, the action a simple admission that he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices, no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire to live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise his life would end in the nest -Ben Mikaelsen, Touching Spirit Bear • This paragraph from Touching Spirit Bear contains an extended metaphor, a metaphor that continues over several sentences and is developed in several ways. The literal term of this metaphor is Cole, the name of the boy who struggles to survive. What is the figurative term? How do you know? In other words, what evidence can you find in the paragraph that supports your understanding of the figurative term of the metaphor? • The figurative term of this metaphor is never directly stated. How would the impact of this paragraph change if Mikaelsen had written it like this? Frantic, Cole was like a little bird struggling to fly, but he couldn’t do it. Like a baby bird, he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices, no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire to live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise life would end.

The Tangerine Times printed a special pullout section on the Lake Windsor Middle School sinkhole. The photos were spectacular. They had one huge shot of the splintered walkways sticking up in all directions, like Godzilla had just trampled through there. -Edward Bloor, Tangerine • Is the phrase the splintered walkways sticking up in all directions literal of figurative? Explain. • ….like Godzilla had just trampled through there is a simile. Why is it a simile and not a metaphor? What are the literal and figurative terms?

Eusebio talks in a hoarse whisper that smells like tobacco, one hand on Mama’s shoulder, one hand grasping my T-shirt. He’s like a sheepdog, and we are the sheep. He makes us go in little groups, watching the road, listening. -Frances Temple, Grab Hands and Run • Find one simile and one metaphor in the passage. And identify the literal and figurative terms. 2. How is the meaning of the passage deepened by the simile and metaphor?

But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. -Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street • List the four similes and metaphors in this passage. Be sure you can explain why they are similes and metaphors and what the literal and figurative meanings are. 2. Why doesn’t Cisneros simply say, My Mother’s hair smelled good?

The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles*, shiny with long wear, exchange cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything distinction -Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows*long wooden benches with high backs that usually have storage space in the seat • Remember that personification is a king of metaphor, an implied comparison that always has a human being as its figurative term. Identify the examples of personification in the passage. • How does the use of personification help the reader visualize and connect to the passage? What kind of feeling is created by personification?

The camp faced a wide cove of white sane and palm trees. The bay was so perfectly blue, it looked like it had been retouched for a tourist brochure. Across the bay stood protective mountains, shoulder to shoulder, across the Concepción peninsula -Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants • Underline the example of personification in the third sentence. What are the literal and figurative terms? • How would the meaning of the third sentence change if it were written like this? There were mountains across the Concepción peninsula

HYPERBOLES, SYMBOLS & IRONYFigurative Language

He could shoot a bumblebee in the eye at sixty paces, and he was a man who was not afraid to shake hands with lightening. -Harold W. Felton, Pecos Bill and the Mustang • This is an example of a hyperbole, an exaggeration that is based on truth but carries the trust to such an extreme that it is no longer literally true. Of course, Peco Bill couldn’t literally do these things. What, then, is the purpose of saying that he could? • Compare Felton’s sentence with this one: He could shoot very well, and he was not afraid of anything. Which sentence better helps the reader understand what Pecos Bill is like? Why?

“… The grass you are standing on, my dear little ones, is made of a new kind of soft minty sugar that I’ve just invented! I call it swudge! Try a blade! Please do! It’s delectable!”… “Isn’t it wonderful!” whispered Charlie. “Hasn’t it got a wonderful taste, Grandpa?” “I could eat the whole field!” said Grandpa Joe, grinning with delight. “I could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field!” -Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory • Underline the example of a hyperbole in this passage. Remember that a hyperbole is figurative, not literal. What is the literal meaning of the hyperbole? • The character, Grandpa Joe, first states the he could eat a whole field. Then he extends or continues this hyperbole by saying he could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field. How does this extended hyperbole help you understand Grandpa Joe’s experience of the swudge?

There was enough artillery in Beekman’s toy department to wipe our Red China and the Mau-Mau tribe of Africa, and I personally think some of the toy manufactures could use a good course in prevention psychiatry. -Paul Zindel, The Pigman • Underline the hyperbole in this sentence. • What is the speaker’s attitude towards toy guns? How does the hyperbole in this sentence reveal this attitude?

Flowers and other things have been laid against the wall. There are little flags, an old teddy bear, and letters, weighted with stones so they wont blow away. Someone has left a rose with a droopy head. -Eve Bunting, The Wall • This passage is from a book about the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. There are several symbols in the passage. Identify the symbols and explain what they mean. 2. Look at the last sentence about the rose. Remember that it is a rose, but it’s also a symbol of something else. What does the rose actually symbolize? Why does it have to have a droopy head here? What does the droopy heard add to our understanding of the symbol and the feeling of the passage?

The one tree in Francine’s yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. It had pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenement districts. -Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn • Remember that a symbol is itself and something else. This paragraph is about a tree, but it’s also about something else. What is that something else? When you identify that something else, you have understood the symbol. • How would this passage be different if Smith had used a simile instead of symbolism, like this? Francie’s spirit was like a tree with pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. She always tried to rise above her troubles like a Tree of Heaven which struggles to reach the sky, no matter where its seed falls

As I reached for the porch to steady myself, there was a sense of quiet movement in the darkness. The moon slid from its dark covers, cloaking the earth in a shadowy white light, and I could see Mr. Morrison clearly, moving silently, like a jungle cat, from the side of the house to the road, a shotgun in his hand. -Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry • Traditionally, darkness symbolizes evil and deception, and light symbolizes goodness and truth. What is going on in this paragraph? How does the use of traditional symbolism help you understand the passage? • Mr. Morrison is described as moving silently, like a jungle cat. Is jungle cat a symbol? Explain your answer thoroughly.

All this last day Frodo had not spoken, but had walked half-bowed, often stumbling, as if his eyes no longer saw the way before his feet. Sam guessed that among all their pains he bore the worst, the growing weight of the Ring, a burden on the body and a torment to his mind. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King • The ring in this book is, in fact, a ring; however, it is also something else. That, of course, makes the ring a symbol. What do rings usually symbolize? In other words, why would Tolkien use a ring as a symbol? • How does the use of a symbol help you understand the passage?

Oh, and there’s a thrilling shot of one of the kids being sick on a small fishing boat of the coast of Florida and we are hovering over him offering him salami and mayonnaise sandwiches. That one really breaks us up. -Erma Bombeck, At Wit’s End • Remember that verbal irony implies the opposite of what is said, and irony may or may not be sarcastic (intending to hurt). Bombeck describes a picture from a family vacation as thrilling. Is it ironic? Is it sarcastic? • Look at the following rewriting of the passage: We have a picture of one of the kids being sick on a small fishing boat off the coast of Florida. In the picture, we’re making fun of him and offering him salami and mayonnaise sandwiches. We know it’s wrong, but it’s kind of funny. Which version is funnier? Why? How does the use of irony help shape your understanding of the author’s attitude toward vacation pictures?

“All that he would have to do,” continued the worried bug, “is travel through miles of harrowing and hazardous countryside, into unknown valleys and uncharted forests, past yawning chasms and trackless wastes, until he reached Digitopolis (if, of course, he ever reached there). Then he would have to persuade the Mathemagician to agree to release the little princesses—and, of course, he’d never agree to agree to anything that you agreed with. And, anyway, if he did, you certainly wouldn’t agree to it… “And, finally, after the long ride back, a triumphal parade (if, of course, there is anything left to parade) followed by hot chocolate and cookies for everyone.” The Humbug bowed low and sat down once again, very pleased with himself. “I never realized it would be so simple,” said the king, stroking his beard and smiling broadly. “Quite simple indeed,” concurred the bug. -Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth • When the bug says the task is quite simple indeed, what does he really mean? Is this verbal irony? Is it sarcasm? • When the king says, I never realized it would be so simple, is it ironic? Justify your answer.

We divide the world in columnswhen we stick to our own kind.We nurture our suspicions,keep our stereotypes in line.We have to keep our distanceSo we’ve another kind to blame.How come,if we’re so different,we both react the same? -Sara Holbrook, “Major Differences,” Walking on the Boundaries of Change: Poems of Transition • Read these stanzas very carefully. Several of the lines say one thing, but they mean quite the opposite. In other words, they’re ironic. What do the lines say, and what do the lines mean? (Use lines 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-9) • How would the impact of the poem change if we rewrote the last stanza like this? We shouldn’t keep our distance Nor stick to our own kind. Because It’s not so helpful And it builds a narrow mind.

IMAGERYThe use of words to re-create a sensory experience.

The silence was delicate. Aunty Ifeoma was scraping a burnt pot in the kitchen, and the kroo-kroo-kroo of the metal spoon on the pot seemed intrusive. Amaka and Papa-Nnukwu spoke sometimes, their voices low, twining together. They understood each other, using the sparest words. Watching them, I felt a longing for something I knew I would never have. I wanted to get up and leave, but my legs did not belong to me, did not do what I wanted them to. -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus • Imagery is the re-creation of sensory experiences through language. Which of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) is most important here? Underline the particular words that create this sense experience for the reader? • The kroo-kroo-kroo of the metal spoon on the pot is described as intrusive. What does this mean? What image is contrasting with the sound of the metal spoon on the pot? What effect does this have on the passage?

Backing out the drivewaythe car lights cast an eerie glowin the morning fog centeringon movement in the rain slick street -Nikki Giovanni, “Possum Crossing,” Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea • Circle the images. What kind of imagery is used in these lines? What kind of feeling is created with these images? • Contrast the feeling created by Giovanni’s lines with these lines: Backing out the driveway the car lights cast a warm glow in the morning sunshine centering on movement in the rain slick street How do the images create a different feeling?

Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boom-boom-boom-twelve licks; and all still again- stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees- something was a-stirring. I sat still and listened. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • What kind of imagery is used in this passage? How do these images affect the reader? • Twain uses imagery to set up a contrast between sounds and quiet. How does the use of “quiet” and “sound” images shape your understanding of the scene?

He had bathed regularly in the lake, but not with soap and he thought how wonderful it would be to wash his hair. Thick with grime and smoke dirt, frizzed with wind and sun, matted with fish and foolbird grease, his hair had grown and stuck and tangled and grown until it was a clumped mess on his head. -Gary Paulsen, Hatchet 1.Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between figurative language (like metaphors and similes) and imagery. That’s because a lot of figurative language contains imagery. For example, we could describe someone’s hair as limp and stringy, like overcooked spaghetti. This is a visual image- it makes you “see” the hair. But it is also figurative (hair is compared to overcooked spaghetti). Read Paulsen’s paragraph again. Is the imagery figurative or not? Explain your answer. 2. What does the imagery in this passage reveal about the character’s attitude toward his dirty hair?

DISCOVERING VOICE: Voice Lessons for Middle and High School