The Black Wall

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

gave the ultimate sacrifice in the war. He tries not to cry. He tells himself, I am stone. Then he reasons that he is flesh, human, and it is impossible no to feel emotion.
A special kind of literary comparison, Personification, is closely related to metaphor and gives life or human characteristics to inanimate or abstract ideas. Komunyakaa uses personification to bring life to the memorial wall. To make it seem that the wall is living and breathing is crucial for the impact the poem has to the reader. In the beginning, Komunyakaa states how his face hides inside the black wall, the author then in the lines, "I turn this way - the stone lets me go. I turn that way - I'm inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial again, depending on the light to make a difference." (8-13) compares the wall to a person. When he says, the stone lets me go, he is able to break the grasp that the memorial wall can have on a person when one's staring into the etched black granite.
Imagery means to use ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: