Comparing Two Ways Of Seeing A River And In The Trenches

In Mark Twain’s “Two Ways of Seeing a River” and Charles Yale Harrison’s “In the Trenches,” the authors use sensory imagery to enhance the reader’s visualization on the plot. In addition, both authors effectively demonstrate the use of imagery. In Twain’s “Two ways of seeing a River,” he uses sensory imagery to describe his change of view on his once great river; however, in Harrison’s “In the Trenches,” he effectively uses multiple types of sensory imagery to show the wartime life of the narrator. Both passages allow the reader to understand the point of the narrator from the effective use of sensory imagery. Twain uses visual imagery to illustrate a vivid image in the reader’s mind; however, Harrison uses multiple senses of imagery to effectively show the life of man in war.

The narrator, Mark Twain, in the passage “Two ways of seeing a river” effectively uses sensory imagery to describe his viewpoint on the river. The narrator begins the brief story by describing his knowledge about the river as he has “Mastered the language of [the water]” by the way he compares it to his familiarity with “The letters of the alphabet.” Twain creates an image in the reader’s mind, which permits the reader to perceive the connection of the narrator to the river. Furthermore, Twain notes the glories and the charms which the “Moon
Both authors effectively use sensory imagery to create a visual in the reader’s mind, as Harrison utilizes multiple senses to convey his meaning to the reader while Twain utilizes visual imagery exceptionally well to create a picture of the river in the reader’s mind. Twain’s purpose of the use of imagery is to illustrate the message that beauty does not last forever. However, Harrison’s purpose of the use of imagery is to put the reader in the perspective of the