Our Kind: A Novel in Stories

How does Kate Walbert use imagery in Our Kind: A Novel in Stories?

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Imagery:

"Know that we are a close-knit community. We've lived here for years, which is not to say that our ancestors are buried here; simply, this is the place we have all ended up. We were married in 1953. Divorced in 1976. Our grown daughters pity us; our grown sons forget us. We have grandchildren we visit from time to time, but their manners agitate, so we return, nervous, thankful to view them at a distance."

"We know this and more: His bad back, His quenchless thirst. He is our faithless husband, our poor father. He is our bad son, our schemer, our rogue. He is our coward in the conflict, our liar. He has betrayed all He has promised. Still, we love Him."

"We do not want Him wrapped around a telephone pole."

"Let it be said that we do not like to interfere. If a woman is willingly alone in a tumbledown house off the old Route 32; if trash has collected in the muddled ruts of her drive and the garden's yarrow grown to the height of a man, it is presumably, her business. If she has been found, once or twice, wandering in robe and slippers toward the Grange Hall, her hands kneading shreds of used tissue in her pockets, her fingernails dirty, she is perfectly capable, we'd agree, of pulling herself back up by her bootstraps. Lord knows we have all had our difficulties."

Source(s)

Our Kind