TC Boyle Week: #2–STRONG SOUND IMAGERY

Writers often use imagery–appealing to the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch–to help create a mood. While examples of stunning sight imagery abound, it’s rare to find stellar examples of the others. Today, let’s look at another short passage from T. C. Boyle‘s short story, “The Night of the Satellite”:

A truck went blatting by on the interstate, and then it was silent, but for the mosquitoes singing their blood song, while the rest of the insect world screeched either in protest or accord, I couldn’t tell which, thrumming and thrumming, until the night felt as if it were going to burst open and leave us shattered in the grass.

Onomatopoeia: blatting, singing, screeched, thrumming….Many words used to represent sounds.

Repetition: thrumming, repeated, to parallel the meaning of the word “thrumming.”

Assonance: repeated vowel sounds, soft “a” sounds, in “shattered” and “grass.”

Notice how all the sound devices work together to add to the atmosphere. The “blatting” of the horn of the truck (likely a semi); the annoyance of mosquitoes buzzing about, searching for their next targets; the harsh “screeching” of the other insects–all combine to create an uncomfortable situation. It’s so harsh, in fact, that the evening as a whole is going to leave us “shattered in the grass.” It’s been a rough night.

Try this:

Go back to something you’ve previously written and read until you find a section that may be improved with some sound imagery. Experiment, and let me know about the “before” and “after” passages.

Tomorrow: TC Boyle: Smile with Similes