Figurative Language In The Street

A Walk Down “The Street”:
Close Reading Analysis of Figurative Language, Imagery, and Diction Walking down a street is typically a straightforward affair; with other pedestrians walking and cars cruising up and down the lanes. The poem “The Street” by Octavio Paz goes in stark contrast to that as it follows the speaker in first person through a journey down a dark, vacant street. In its entirety, the poem is an expose for the loss of one’s identity both to the world and to themself. Throughout the poem there is figurative language and imagery which lends to the idea of a lost identity, while the diction utilized within the poem strongly suggests the same ideals. Figurative language is utilized very well in this poem as …show more content…
I turn: nobody.
Many of these images are reflected after the change in perspective of the speaker, such as when he “pursue[s] a man who stumbles and / rises and says when he sees me: nobody” in lines twelve and thirteen, opposing “I stumble and fall and rise” in lines two and three. The imagery throughout the poem repeatedly stresses the desperate and hopeless nature of the idea of losing one’s identity. The specific usage of diction within the poem helps create an understanding of how the speaker views himself and his own life leading to his expression of lost identity. Many words are repeated or have a similar denotation though the poem. In the first line the author uses the word “silent” describing the street, a few lines later walking on “silent stones and dry leaves”, which usually elicit specific and distinctly audible sounds (4). Darkness is another reoccurring subject, cited in lines two and eight as he “walk[s] in blackness” and “[e]verything [is] dark and doorless” (2,8). The specific focus on silence and darkness highlight the feelings in which the author wants to associate with a lack of identity along with the seemingly inescapable nature that comes with it. As the poem focuses on the lack of identity it is fitting that the word “nobody” is used four times throughout the poem, emphasizing how the speaker feels like a “nobody”, quite literally someone with no identity (7, 11, 13). The specific word choice and arrangement of the poem

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