The Loons

Hamburger paragraph #1

The imagery displayed in ‘The Loons” greatly helps convey the story for a multitude of reasons. First, since the story is called The Loons, it would only make sense to have loons featured within the story, so the brief encounter with them is enhanced with beautiful imagery. The lake they are upon is called “black glass with a streak of amber”.  Another good example is the environment, well describing it with imagery. The environment is an important part of this story due to the stereotype of the natives knowing the forest and their surroundings. The final use of imagery comes from the description Piquette Tonnerre, when it is used to draw out her profile with words. The way the author describes her clothing, her tubercular leg and somehow even her personality is done incredibly well. It is important to have a good picture of Piquette, as she plays a key part in the story. In conclusion, imagery is a great way to describe the story, as it adds detail to the picture already painted by words.  

Hamburger paragraph #2

Similies are often a great way to relate to the audience. Foremost, the use of a similie helps the audience understand by relating the situation at hand with a similar one that is familiar to them. For example, in the story, there is a similie that says that the strawberries hung like lanterns. Perhaps not everyone has seen strawberries hanging delicately from a branch, but surely everyone has seen a lantern hanging from somewhere. Similies can also be used to reiterate a certain situation. If the two things that are being compared are similar enough, it is almost like a reinforcement. Lastly, similies can be used to compare two completely different scenarios to bring variety. For example, in The Loons, an example, the jukebox is compared to thunder. Thunder is irrelevant to the situation at hand, however the comparison makes sense. To conclude, similies are excellent at relating situations in a story to an experience in the readers life.

Representation:

Aside from the obvious reason of choosing a loon to represent the story, it is also a metaphor for the ending of an era. In the story, everything changes for Vanessa. Both her father and Piquette die in the end, yet Vanessa seems somewhat apathetic to it. Similar to how those people died and Vanessa doesn't much care, the Canadian loon will migrate and leave for a time, yet it is never a large deal as it happens so often.