Imagery in Chopin, Komunyakaa, and Akhmadulina

Introduction: The Power of Imagery

Imagery allows authors to convey certain feelings for readers to experience. Three pieces of literature that illustrate the power of imagery are Kate Chopin's short story The Story of an Hour, Yusef Komunyakaa's poem Facing It, and Bella Akhmadulina's poem The Bride. While each of these pieces explores a different topic, they demonstrate how imagery can bring a sense of reality to the reader. In Chopin's story, we can see Louise's freedom just as she sees it — from a tiny bedroom looking through an open window, with spring air hinting at the wonderful things to come. In Facing It, Komunyakaa utilizes powerful imagery to express his anguish when visiting the Vietnam War Memorial. The wall becomes a powerful dark memory that is impossible to shake. In The Bride, Akhmadulina provides the reader with images that reveal the exciting and anxious emotions the poet is experiencing. Her white dress stained with wine presents the anguish the new bride is feeling. These pieces reveal the power of imagery and how it works almost effortlessly in the background, creating nuance for the reader and giving each piece a life all its own. Imagery, when used properly, is a commanding tool for an author.

In The Story of an Hour, Chopin articulates the excitement Louise feels through specific imagery that points to freedom. Chopin allows us to see the world in which Louise lives by providing ample imagery. The setting of the story takes place in a house and, more specifically, one room of that house. The house itself is like a prison. The door is locked when her husband is away. When Louise goes upstairs to the bedroom, she "would have no one follow her" (635). She wants to be alone — perhaps initially to face her sorrow — but what she discovers in that room is something much more.

Freedom and Nature in 'The Story of an Hour'

The open window allows Louise to experience a sense of freedom that overtakes her. This is best expressed through the natural setting. We read that trees are "all aquiver with the new spring of life" (Chopin 39). She hears the "notes of a distant song which some one was singing" (39) and smells the "delicious breath of rain" in the air (635). As she looks outside, she sees the clouds parting to reveal the sun. These are positive images that make the reader keenly aware of Louise's discovery. As she realizes her future, Louise is "drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window" (40). Suddenly, she is not a widow so much as a woman with a bright future not attached to any one man.

It is important to note that when Louise imagines her husband's hands folded in death, she sees only what they can no longer do to her. Before his death, his hands were holding her back and oppressing her — reminders of "a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely" (40). The hands would no longer hold her back, and this causes Louise to welcome the coming years. She is free. Her pulse beats "fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body" (40) as she considers all that is unfolding before her eyes. Nature is the perfect vehicle for expressing Louise's freedom, as the world outside is refreshing and beautiful. There is no fear. The freedom, viewed in this light, is as much spiritual as it is physical.

The images in this story work because Chopin is articulating the freedom Louise had only dreamed about. Perhaps the most striking image in the story is Louise collapsing at the bottom of the stairs when she realizes that her husband is not dead. Life and death are represented perfectly through imagery in this story. As with all strong literary imagery, the meaning is conveyed not through direct statement but through what the reader sees and feels.

In Facing It, the poet utilizes imagery to take the reader back to a place that is most uncomfortable to revisit. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is simply an object, but the poet demonstrates how it is much more than that through powerful imagery. Standing before the wall, the poet is filled with memories and anxiety. As he glances at it, he states that his "black face fades" (Komunyakaa 1) into the granite. Immediately, the poet dissolves into a time and place other than where he is standing. This image captures that sensation perfectly.

Memory and the Wall in 'Facing It'

The wall is powerful because of the poet's memories, and he must at times turn his head away from the stone. Within seconds, he must fight the urge to cry. He wants to be as stone-like as the wall so that he will not remember — another powerful image of a man resisting grief. He cannot escape what the wall does to him. He states that when his eyes are upon it, he feels as though he is "inside" (10) the wall. However, it is not the wall he enters; it is his own memory. When the poet touches the name of a dead man, he sees the flash of a booby trap. The wall acts as a conductor for all of the memories the poet has been trying to repress.

The poet sees different, random objects reflected in the wall and is transported to another time. When he watches a woman "trying to erase names" (30), he must eventually recognize that she is only brushing a young boy's hair. This image illustrates how events can become blurred and sometimes misunderstood. The wall is a mirror, and the past becomes blurred with the present as the poet reads the names of the dead and catches glimpses of the living. When he sees the names shimmer on the woman's blouse, the names remain on the wall after she has walked away — indicating that the present does not always erase the past. The past, like the names on the wall, will always be there.

The image of the white veteran is powerful because the poet is suddenly connecting with another man who served. This veteran "lost his right arm / inside the stone" (29–30). We do not know whether the man simply moved a certain way and the reflection created that illusion or not. We are again reminded of the power of the mind. Komunyakaa works with these images to illustrate how compelling an object can become and, in doing so, also demonstrates the power of the imagination.

In The Bride, Akhmadulina explores the wonder and anxiety involved with getting married and becoming a wife. The poet begins the poem with the image of the bride beneath a "white canopy / of a modest veil" (Akhmadulina 3–4). The poet is "bound by icy rings" (5), and wine encourages compliments for the couple. The next image of the white dress shows it "stained with wine like blood" (18). The poet also mentions "Chemises in cellophane" (13) along with "plates, flowers, lace" (14) — images that draw us closer to the wedding event.

Conclusion: Imagery as a Literary Tool

These pieces demonstrate the power imagery has in literature. We often hear the phrase without giving much notice to it, but the fact is that imagery that works well does so without drawing attention to itself, quietly planting a scene or picture in the reader's mind. Well-placed imagery is like a snapshot of what the author is saying. Writers are essentially painting a picture, and the images they give us are important to the overall message.