| Imagery |
Birds
Violet sets her birds free, especially the parrot that says, “I Love You” (1). When she finally gets a new one, after all that happened in their relationship, it is sick. This is a symbol of their love, which was lost for a while, but came back a new and the music helps make it better. The parrot presents both aspects of their love: the old and the new. The old was the parrot that said, “I Love You,” which flew away just like Joe and Violet’s love. Their love had become routine and monotonous unlike when they first “danced into the city” (33). Also, the new love was the parrot that was sick because all that had happened to them tarnished their love.
City/Music
The background
of this novel is the city that “swirls” around them.
The music gets the blood boiling and everything.
“There is no air in the city, but there is breath” (34).
“Blues man. Black and
Bluesman. Black therefore blue man.
Everybody knows your name. Where-did-she-go-and-why
man. So-lonesome-I-could-die man.
Everybody knows your name” (119).
These two aspects of the novel create the atmosphere for the novel.
The story is presented more as a sultry jazz song with the characters as
the notes, the story as the words, and the “marching drums” of the city
keeping the beat of their lives (54).
Nature
Violet uses trees to describe people, as the
narrator describes, the Iroquois sky “crayon coloring” their love (38).
This even goes as far as to delve into the city imagery.
The nature imagery helps develop the meat of the novel.
Red
One of the most prominent images, this is one of passion, illusion, and falsehood. The birds that Violet first has have red – tipped wings. The young girls have “red lips of sinful people” (56). The signal that Hunter relied on most to find Wild was – redwings. The best indicator of what red signifies is when the narrator, on page 217 asks, “ what I wonder, what would I be with out a few brilliant spots of blood to ponder?” Basically, what would she be without being able to study their drama?
