Setting
Imagery is used simply but effectively to describe setting throughout the novel. "It was an iron-grey morning with a low sky" is one of the simplest examples. With the just the addition of a specific shade of gray that gives it a dull metallic appearance and the addition of the sky as seeming to be lower than usual, this imagery instantly conveys an emotional atmosphere. In a novel with grotesque descriptions of character. the simplicity in this imagery becomes more striking than it would be in a less bizarre tale.
Strip Tease
Imagery plays an efficient role in conveying the tease aspect of a slow strip show. Miranda, the narrator's daughter, has just pulled off her G-string and with "her head tipped up and an unmistakable giggle bubbling out of her as she revealed the thin, curling tail that jutted out from the end of her spine and bounced just above her round buttocks." This use of imagery is doubly effective as it is the first revelation of Miranda's anatomical peculiarity. The reader is thus as surprised by the tease as the men in the strip joint. This use of imagery also subtly hints at Miranda's psychological state through the additional detail of the effervescent laugher with which she makes the big reveal.
Aqua Boy
The narrator's older brother is nicknamed Arty, but he is known in the carny freakshow world as Aqua Boy because he has flippers instead of hands and feet. His sister describes the flippers as "Nearly flat, twisting at their short joints like swans' necks, smooth and powerful and extending with asymmetrical purpose." This use of imagery is typical of the way in which the book presents the induced physical deformities of its characters. The reference to the elegance of a swan's neck serves to reduce the grotesque aspect. Rather than being defects, the language indicating their strength and power actually makes it almost seem preferable to not have hands.
Miss Lick
Miss Lick is a character who is not part of the carnival sideshow milieu. It is notable that her physical description does make this obvious. "Six foot two and 240 pounds in a grey business suit. Her high heels are each big enough to bury an Egyptian in." The imagery used as physical description of this character is not that much different from that which is used to describe the genetically deformed offspring of the Binewski family. Miss Lick is, in fact, somewhat freakish and the lack of distinction in the use of imagery seems to be making a point about what qualifies as freakishness.
