Imagery In W. P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe

In W.P. Kinsella’s novel, Shoeless Joe, Kinsella developed his story on the famous baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson and the famous Black Sox Scandal. Kinsella used many literary devices throughout the story. The main literary device used is, imagery. In the novel, Kinsella uses imagery to enhance the reader's experience. There are three prominent imagery scenes in this novel. The protagonists (Ray Kinsella) wife describes a man with a baseball cap and an old fashioned hat, who really was Shoeless Joe. Another imagery scene was, Shoeless Joe approached Ray and asked if he could return to the field, Ray agreed and could see a new players appear from the 1919 Chicago White Sox roster. Lastly at Boston Red Sox game, Salinger (J.D Salinger,

Confused by what the protagonist should build, he soon interprets it as he should construct a baseball field and that his idle, Shoeless Joe, will come and play. The protagonist then imagines a wide spread field, with his favourite 1919 Chicago White sox team playing. He soon begins to start plowing on his farm, seeding it with grass, laying out the outfield and infield, and putting up bleachers for the spectator. One day when the baseball field had been constructed, the protagonist’s wife sees a young man in an old fashioned uniform and ball cap. It was the protagonists idle, Shoeless Joe. Soon his team runs onto the field and begins to play. As a reader I felt that the imagery enhanced my experience, describing why the protagonist does these tasks. If the author had not used imagery like the baseball announcer approaching the protagonist or the description of the old fashioned uniform what Shoeless Joe was wearing, it would have been difficult to imagine the scenes. Since these scenes are the beginning of the story and are very important to the novel, the author used good words to make it visually