Juxtaposition Examples

The dictionary definition of Juxtaposition is “An act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast” (Dictionary.com). In the book “NOD” by Adrian Barnes, uses the definition to give his book the theme in which he uses words to illustrate the slowly unmasking of social etiquette. By inserting words not normally used in a sentence together, Barnes is able to give his readers a sense of two worlds that are slowly bleeding into one another. One world, the world we know with rules, laws, and sense of order, and the new “NOD” world in which the main character of the book finds himself swelling up around him. When is an object define by the word? Or how do we arrange letters in such a way that gives
Is my meaning clear?”(43). The decision to choose one word over another can be the difference between describing a harmless scene, to a more ominous image. One of the sentences Barnes writes, and decides to replace a specific word in order to transform a relatively silly saying to a more dangerous scene was, “People running around like “’spiders’”, darting in and out of the shadows beneath the full moon, intentions unfathomable”(57). The saying that we are used to hearing has the word cockroaches instead of the word “spiders”. Spiders with their eight-leg bodies, and fangs fill with venom ready to turn the insides of their pray into mush to consume them, paints a more ominous scene. By replacing an animal to a more frightful one to a regular sentence it elevates the mood to a cautious feeling. The sentence describes the behavior of the people who cannot sleep and allows the readers to assume a violent scene will be coming in the next one. The scene of Paul lying on the floor while a construction worker (which Paul names him as a Blemmye) is on top of him punching him all over follows