Jacob Have I Loved

The narrative places the reader within the story and its setting on Rass Island through use of detailed and evocative imagery—descriptive language that focuses on sensory detail. Strong imagery evokes all the senses, not only sight but also sound, touch, and smell. For instance, Louise describes taking off her shoes to walk into the mud and grass: “standing waist deep in the cordgrass to feel the cool mud squish up between my toes [...]. In my nostrils, the faint hay smell of the grass mingled with that of the brackish water of the Bay, while the spring wind chilled the tips of my ears…” (3). This passage offers sensory details of sight, touch, and smell, bringing the marsh vividly to life. Similarly, Louise describes the day after the hurricane hits as “the bluest, clearest day of the summer. Every breath of air was delicious with just enough of a clean, salt edge to wake up all your senses” (126). Here again, the imagery includes sight and smell and evokes a sense of awe and joy.

The detailed imagery is not confined only to describing the island. As Louise becomes increasingly obsessed with hands—the Captain’s, her own, and others—the imagery used to describe them increases as well. Louise references a Pond’s lotion ad, featuring a woman’s beautiful white elegant hands and a man’s strong clean hands, to contrast with her own rough, cracked hands with broken nails. She describes the Captain’s nails with minute detail, saying: “His nails were large, rounded at the bottom and blunt and neat at the tips. He had the cleanest fingernails of any man I’d ever seen…” (132). Such meticulous imagery is also used to describe music in several places in the novel, such as the Christmas concert, to evoke Louise’s feelings of wonder and pride.