Literary Device - Imagery

      In the passage, Khaled Hosseini shows a strong example of imagery with the quote, "At night, Laila lay in bed and watched the sudden white flashes reflected in her window. She listened to the rattling of automatic gunfire and counted the rockets whining overhead as the house shook and flakes of plaster rained down on her from the ceiling. Some nights, when the light of rocket fire was so bright a person could read a book by it, sleep never came" (174). This quote offers a rich multitude of imagery which stimulates the auditory and visual senses. The quote allows the reader to have a movie-like understanding of Laila's experience in war. The reason Khaled Hosseini uses strong imagery in describing Laila's situation is to give the reader a clear understanding of the hardship that the characters must go through during times of war. For example, if Hosseini had written only, "the rockets where so loud that Laila had trouble sleeping," the reader would not be able to imagine how loud and intrusive the rockets are. Not all of Hosseini's readers understand the consequential anxiety that comes from living in times of war, and it is important that Hosseini paints a vivid image for readers to connect with the terrors of his characters.