Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation

Imagery Questions

We will revise simile, metaphor,

personification and hyperbole,
and consider how to answer this
type of question in the exam.
 Simile
A comparison between two things using
‘like’ or ‘as’.

The effect can be any number of things.

However, it adds a visual emphasis or
impact to a written description.

He’s like a dog with a bone.

Metaphor
A comparison between
two things where one
thing becomes or is the
other.

Similar effects as similes.

You’re an angel.
 Personification
Another way of making a comparison.

It is a special type of image: similes and

metaphors can become personification.

It involves giving human characteristics to an

inanimate object.

The wind howled down the corridor.

 Hyperbole

An exaggerated image to create a certain

effect (often humorous) or to emphasise
something.

I got tonnes of birthday cards.

How to answer
1. Quote the image.

2. State what type of image it is.

3. Explain what links the two things being

compared.
• Just as … so too…

4. Explain the effect the image has on the reader.

5. Link to the question.

 Example 1

Johann Hari reflects on a science-fiction

novel he has been reading about an
imagined world where books have been
forgotten.
I have been thinking about this because I
recently moved flat, which for me meant
boxing and heaving several Everests of books,
accumulated obsessively since I was a kid…. As
I stacked my books high, and watched my
friends get buried in landslides of novels, it
struck me that this scene might be
incomprehensible a generation from now. The
book – the physical paper book – is being circled
by a shoal of sharks, with sales down 9 percent
this year alone. It’s being chewed by the e-
book. It’s being gored by the death of the
bookshop and library.
Example Answer 1(a)
Show how the writer’s use of imagery makes
clear the number of books he possesses. (2)
Example Answer 1(a)
Show how the writer’s use of imagery makes
clear the number of books he possesses. (2)

• The writer uses a metaphor, ‘buried in

landslides.’ (1)
• Just as people disappear in huge amounts of
earth in landslides, so too did the writer’s
friends vanish under the enormous number of
his books they were carrying for him. (1)
• The use of this image helps the reader to
appreciate the sheer volume of books he has.
Example Answer 1(b)
How does the writer use imagery to make
clear the threat to the paper book? (2)
Example Answer 1(b)
How does the writer use imagery to make
clear the threat to the paper book? (2)

• The writer uses a metaphor, ‘circled by a

shoal of sharks.’ (1)
• Just as a shoal of sharks crowds around
its intended victim prior to its slaughter,
so too are physical books being
increasingly threatened by the
encroaching sale of e-books. (1)