Opening Imagery
The opening pages of the book are almost entirely constructed using imagery. The author begins by asking readers to use their sensory memories to picture a large elephant inside a massive space like a school gym. Now imagine a mouse has scurried in, too. A robin hops alongside it. An owl perches on an overhead beam. A bat hangs upside down from the ceiling. A rattlesnake slithers along the floor...A mosquito buzzes through the air." This opening is a textbook example of how to use imagery. The reader is called upon to use memories of their vision and hearing to imagine this scene and some will even be moved to tap into deep phobic responses to fully imagine the scene.
Canine Sniffers
"Migaloo can find buried bones at archaeological sites...Elvis specializes in pregnant polar bears...Tucker used to hang off the bow of boats and sniff for orca poop." Migaloo, Elvis, and Tucker are the names of dogs specially trained to use their species' highly developed olfactory senses. Even these names are a form of imagery in that they stimulate preconceived ideas about what the dogs might look like. Using those imagined images, ancient bones, big white pregnant bears, and an excited dog in a boat are easily brought to vivid life in one's mind.
The Bubble
That image of the enclosed bubble is really the central one of the book for conveying the concept of environmental limitations. "Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal can only tap into a small fraction of reality's fullness. Each is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world.” This specific presentation of the bubble is imagery that highlights how each species lives within boundaries inside which they possess superpowers, but outside of which they are utterly defenseless.
