Samantha Parker

Mr. Cook
ELA
12 December 2014

Would you have ever thought that you and your familys life would change in just
a blink of an eye? Did you ever think that you would have to be a single father or mother
raising three beautiful children after a nightmare for all humanity, a landslide? The
author Daniel Alarcon uses the rhetorical device of imagery in his short story, The
Visitor. After reading, The Visitor, I believe that Alarcon used a lot of figurative
language to create this story that used imagery, which caused a tone of depression and
deep emotions that mostly occur in tragedies that involve love ones or family members.

Alarcon uses the rhetorical device imagery in many scene throughout his short
story to create a depressing tone. Alarcon writes, The sky was heavy with dust after the
landslide. Wed been at the cemetery burying the little one, who was only a few days old
when he died, who Erlinda, my wife, hadnt had the heart to name (Paragraph 2).
Imagery was being used when he was describing the day he had to bury his youngest
child, that caused the tone to be very depressing.

Alarcon used figurative language and imagery to describe something that has
happened or something that was going to happen next in the story. Alarcon writes, I
made it, finally, to where my house had stood, to where my wife must have been buried.

Id taken a cross from the cemetery, scavenged from one of the wrecked graves. I
planted it in the mud above my home. Erlinda, I prayed, had felt no pain and hadnt had
time to be afraid. She had died in her sleep, I prayed (Paragraph 6). The figurative
language and imagery that was being used was when he was describing how he
prayed that his wife died without any pain or fear, as well as what he did when he got to
his home from the top of the hill where his children were. By using figurative language
and imagery as shown throughout his story, Alarcon created a depressing and
emotional tone.

In conclusion, I believe after reading, The Visitor by Daniel Alarcon, that

Alarcon used a lot of figurative language to create this story that had used imagery,
which caused a tone of depression and deep emotions. Which mostly occurs in
tragedies that involve love ones or family members. I believe this because the short
story, The Visitor, had a lot of deep emotional feelings that were created by using
figurative language and imagery, that caused the tone to be so depressing, and
emotional. In the story there was death nearly all over the world that was caused by
something that humanity had no control over, which was, a landslide. This horrific
tragedy that humanity was not prepared or had control over had to face their worst fear,
death. Daniel Alarcon written this story with figurative language and imagery that
created this tone of depression.