Imagery

"Sometimes I'll be driving on a long weaving road across marshland, or maybe past rows of furrowed fields, the sky big and grey and never changing mile after mile, and I find I'm thinking about my essay, the one I was supposed to be writing back then, when we were at the Cottages." PAGE 115

The narrator uses imagery to describe circumstances out of which, a memory develops. The imagery is effective because the reader can visually fathom where the narrator is and what she sees. The imagery provides evidence that the essay comes to her mind in different instances. The memory is not always brought on by the same scenery. The use of imagery here adds meaning because it alludes to her still thinking about the essay on different occasions several years later when nothing particularly relevant comes up. If the narrator would have just said that she remembers her essay and has thought about ways to improve it, the information loses vital detail that keeps the reader engaged. The use of imagery provides a situation readers can relate to when something comes to mind without any apparent external influence. For instance if someone is riding a bike on a road through the country with cornfields on either side and they begin to remember a certain experience they had while eating in the city. There is nothing specifically relevant that would have triggered the memory but it comes to mind nonetheless. Imagery was appropriate in this circumstance because it adds to the scene portrayed by the narrator.