Ezra DeHaan Katie Luggar Adv English 150 24 May 2023 Literary Analysis The Sea Devil In his story The Sea Devil, Arthur Gordon tells the story of an encounter between a man and a fish through vivid imagery and physical situations. The author uses themes such as Man Vs. Nature when the man fights against the fish for his life and the Dangers of Ignorance when he chose to go fishing alone at night. Through Gordon’s choice of themes in the short story, we can tell why he chose these themes and why they are pertinent. Gordon can utilize the theme of Sensory Imagery when he talks about the struggle between the man and the sea devil. He uses Sensory Imagery that everyone has felt such as, “He drove both of his heels into the mud, and he clutched …show more content…
Gordon uses this when the encounter starts between the man and the sea devil when he says, “Sobbing and choking, the man struggled for a foothold on the slimy bottom. Sucking in great gulps of air, he fought to free himself from the rope. But the slipknot was jammed deep into his wrists…”(Gordon,3) Through the use of rhythm, he was able to make the event seem to have happened faster almost in a blur as he doesn’t get too specific and only mentions the necessary information. In the beginning of the story when he uses rhythm it is for the opposite reason and he draws out the events by using lots of imagery and other devices to make it last longer. Such as when he says, “He liked the loneliness and the labor of it. He liked the clean taste of salt when he gripped the edge of the net with his teeth as a cast netter must. He liked the arching flight of sixteen pounds of lead and line against the starlight and the welter one crash of the net into the unsuspecting water. He liked the harsh tug of the retrieving rope around his wrist, and the way the net came alive when the cast was true…”(Gordon,1) By having a lot of imagery and description in between his actions he can make