Pardeep Khaira
October 20, 2007
English 360
300040525
Lee Maracle
Short Essay
The Use of Imagery in Running in the Family

Michael Ondaatje's Running in the family is a novel about exploring different boundaries of the his birth place and his relationship with his family, especially with his father. The novel is not simply about him returning to Sir Lanka but him trying to connect with his indentity. Ondaatje not only captures you with his style of writing but also captures your heart through his storytelling of his family. Each chapter takes you deeper into his past, present, and future by illustrating his struggles with his father because he was an alcoholic, which led his parents to break up. The stories in the novel present many example of imagery that are filled with humour and saddness.
Imagery is "a technique of using language, particularly figures of speech such as similes and metaphors, to create emotions and sensations… Imagery induces [one] to see things in certain ways" (Jerome Stern). The use of imagery throughout the novel allows the readers to get a sense of what their reading, and the stories become a vivid picture in the readers mind. Michael Ondaatje's poem, The Cinnamon Peeler, is a great example of imagery. The poem relies on both direct and subtle imagery to keep its foucs on love and sexual desire. For instance, direct imagery includes the referenes to the anatomy of the speaker's wife. The speaker refers to her "breasts and shoulders would reek / you could never walk through the markets / without the profession of my fingers over you" (95). The speaker also refers to the "smooth pasture" of her "upper thigh", and the speaker contiues talking about his wife's anatomy throughout the peom. For instance, "when we swam once I touched you in water and our bodies remained free"(96). These images are as powerful as the scent that the speaker is trying to describe. Imagery is everything that we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Each of our five senses will create an image in the readers mind and Ondaatje creates this beatuifully in the poem. Each stanza is left for the readers imagination to understand that the speaker is describing not just the anatomy of the speaker's wife but also describing the sexual experiences with his wife. In the first stanza when the speakes states "If I were a cinnamon peeler / I would ride your bed,"(95) and in the fifth stanza, he states "I touched you in water / and our bodies remained free" (96). Imagery not only allows to image what the speaker is describing but also allows your mind to understand what the speaker is feeling.
The chapter on "How I Was Bathed" is another example of Ondaatje's use of imagery. This is one of my favorite chapter in the novel because the reader not only is entertained with humour and laughter but also understands the embrassment Ondaatje experiences. He even says "I am dreaming and wondering why this was never to be traumatically remembered" (138). For example, he states:
Maratina filled a bucket with water and flung the contents towards our cowering screaming bodies. Another bucket was filled and hurled towards us hard as a police hose. Then she strode forward, grabbed a child by the hair, pulled him over to the centre, srubbed him violently with carbolic soap and threw him towards the opposite side of the room. She plucked another and repeated the soaping....then returend to the bucket and thrashed water our soapy nakedness...(138).
This is a classic example of anyones childhood because onone wants to hear about their embrassing moments among family members, especially when you are grown up. Since this is a novel about Ondaatje's life so it is easy to understand why he would put this chapter in the novel. In order for the reader to understand what your childhood was like then you as a writer have to include as much detail as possible to present a clear picture in the reader's mind.
One of the saddess imagery Ondaatje paints is in the chapter "Final Days Father Tongue". This chapter contains many sad moments as he fills it with so much humour that it is hard to believe one could be sad about his fathers death, especially when everything goes wrong with his fathers funeral. I think you would be more anger than laugh at all the things that went wrong because it is a serious matter. But the way Ondaatje presents it, it is entertaing for the reader to read and image what is going on in the house. Ondaatje writes "first of all the coffin they brought was too small so they had to build a new one in the house. Then they couldn't get it out so they had to break the doors down" (197). He even calls it as a "tragi-comedy sort of business". When I read this, the image that came to my mind were people running around trying to fix the coffin so they can put his father in and all the people yelling and screaming at each other and trying to figure out how to get the coffin out. This is not just funny but crazy because thats the only way they could get the coffin out.







WORK CITED
"The Cinnamon Peeler: Introduction." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 19. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 18 October 2007. <http://www.enotes.com/cinnamon-peeler/introduction>.

Stern, Jerome, Making Shapely Fiction; excerpts from his website. I found this Googling “storytelling.” It’s all from a literary / writer’s point of view, but good for defining the terms.




Modified by 777sC at 11:10 PM 10/19/2007

 

I would take an M5 or RS6 Avant over that fat pig any day.

Edit: Yes I realize these cars are not slim either but at least they have the power to get up and go like a ****.

 

Id take a lexus sc300 and drop a 2JZ-GTE motor in it.

 

Right now my favorite performance oriented sedan that is decently priced is the Mercedes E55.

 

thinkin bout the new B4 legacy wagon

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMS JT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Right now my favorite performance oriented sedan that is decently priced is the Mercedes E55.</TD></TR></TABLE>

agreed

 

bmw m5...and the wife can't say $hit cause it's a sedan which means FAMILY CAR!

 

the new 4 door ///M3

 

Volvo S60-R
6spd, 5cylinders, 2.5L 300hp.

 

2004 BMW M3, and hopefully I'll have it tommorrow

 

im gonna have to go with the M3 man
i absolutly love those cars
M5's and E55 AMG's r nice and all but theyr pretty huge
the M3 is smaller and has more emphasis on the sport
if i had the $ i would get 1 rite away
but for rite now my rsx-s will have to do
i think the M3 look the best and have good performance

 

man i ****** cant make my mind up... im about it get rid of my car (or just keep it as a beater) ... i wish i could afford an m3 but there is no way in hellll... i duno i was kind of thinking of an audi a4 (2004)... they run about 33ish out the door.. sports package .. hids.. etc... yeah there slow but im moving away from the scene... well not moving away... but yeah you guys know what im saying...

so yeah back to the a4.. ive been looking at them for a while... and now.. i duno its kinda like im sick of them... i duno what to do .. it makes me want to cry =[

 

the new 2004 M3 ..................SWEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!

 

What's this 4 dr m3 people are talking about? 04 m3 is different? pictures? I'd DEFINATELY say RS6 or S8 if you wanna keep it audi.. M5 is okay I guess.. You could save up for an M6 when that's released.. I dunno.. but I wanna see this new m3..

 

ive always wanted a S4

 

RS6 hands down...

 

IS300....

 

 

id take another honda.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMS JT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Right now my favorite performance oriented sedan that is decently priced is the Mercedes E55.</TD></TR></TABLE>

the saab 95 is pretty cool as well

 

S4 or a E36 coupe(doesnt matter if its an M).

 

m3's r nice! but if u wanna bad *** car get an m5...my dad has one take the traction control off and do sick burnies also very nice inside n out!

 

The next car that I WILL buy will be a 2000 NSX.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TKBLAZER &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thinkin bout the new B4 legacy wagon </TD></TR></TABLE>
I'm going to have one.

 

car i want is probably going to be an audi/vw

B5 S4 avant schoolbus...


probably going to be a passat or a4 though, and more than likely a wagon...