In Robert Lawrence Stine’s Goosebumps novels, imagery is an important aspect. As a matter of fact, imagery is the major literary device used in all of his novels. Without imagery, the horror would not be effective to the various readers of his work. With that, two major types of imagery portrayed in his works are: tactile imagery and visual imagery.
“The giant stingray had already stung ten swimmers.” (Sine 1) The quote that was just shown comes from Goosebumps and “Swimming lessons won’t help you now.” As the reader analyzes the quote, they already get a sense of the tactile imagery. This imagery is obviously tactile because the giant stingray touched the swimmers causing them to get stung. As mentioned before, tactile is a type of imagery that is most important in the novels of R.L. Stine. Thus, just reading the gross tactile imagery, gives the reader a sense of “Goosebumps.”
Another important type of imagery used throughout Robert Lawrence Stine’s novels is visual imagery. Stine is an author that knows seeing strange things in words, causes the reader to react in a surprised way. Due to his knowledge, fictional visual imagery is utilized. “I tried to imagine my own legs replaced by a fish tail.” (Stine 43). The indicated quote also comes from Goosebumps and “Summer lessons won’t help you now.”
All in all, the usage of tactile imagery and visual imagery work perfectly in Stine’s novels. Robert used two sensory oriented imageries. These two imageries work perfectly because seeing and touching are the two senses that cause a more and effective reaction toward his novels. |
