The Letter to Harriet
In his love letter to Harriet extending an invitation for a first date, Stuart adopts an overly formal tone. The language Stuart chooses for his invitation for Harriet to join him for an afternoon out on his canoes is one designed to create imagery existing solely within Harriet’s imagination. The imagery instills a portrait of the writer as intelligent and sensitive, yet with a strong physicality since, after all, the date will be a canoe ride. The language that Stuart uses in this letter is not entirely unlike how he speaks, but it is taken to a much higher level; there is the sense of worldliness one would not expect of such a small and relatively inexperienced lover:
“Would you care to go for a paddle with me in my canoe? How about tomorrow afternoon toward sundown, when the petty annoyances of the day are behind us and the river seems to flow more quietly in the long shadows of the willows? These tranquil spring evenings are designed by special architects for the enjoyment of boatmen. I love the water, dear Miss Ames, and my canoe is like an old and trusted friend" (110).
Margalo
Stuart leaves home in search of the missing Margalo, his first love, and the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The search seems unlikely to come to a successful end, however, as Stuart continually seeks the assistance of others who cannot help. His description of Margalo is exactly her own description of herself. It makes such an impact upon Stuart that his only description of her is to repeat it word for word. It is pure imagery, lacking detail and concrete information as imagery usually does. For a self-description, it is quite clearly effective; as the description of a missing bird, not so much:
“She comes from fields once tall with wheat, from pastures deep in fern and thistle; she comes from vales of meadowsweet, and she loves to whistle" (128).
The Repairman Philosopher
The last person Stuart talks to before the book ends is by trade a telephone line repairman. By practice, however, he is a philosopher who dutifully writes down every word of the description of Margalo with the conscience of a man who knows that not all things can be described by how they look. He advises Stuart to head north suggestively, as if speaking in code to Stuart that all things searched for can be found in that direction. He then reveals himself a master of imagery with a brief review of some of things he has seen heading northward:
“Swamps where cedars grow and turtles wait on logs but not for anything in particular; fields bordered by crooked fences broken by years of standing still; orchards so old they have forgotten where the farmhouse is…pastures rank with ferns and junipers, all under fair skies with a wind blowing…spruce woods on winter nights where the snow lay deep and soft, a perfect place for a carnival of rabbits" (130-31).
Garbage All Around
When Stuart is accidentally tossed into a sanitation truck and struggles to escape, imagery becomes essential in bringing the scene to life. The author appeals to the senses of the reader to share in the disgust Stuart experiences so that the garbage can be seen and almost touched and smelled:
“All around him was garbage, smelling strong. Under him, over him, on all four sides of him—garbage. Just an enormous world of garbage and trash and smell…egg on his trousers, butter on his cap, gravy on his shirt, orange pulp in his ear, and banana peel wrapped around his waist…He climbed a pile of coffee grounds, but near the top the grounds gave way under him and he slid down and landed in a pool of leftover rice pudding" (58-59).
