Imagery....Literature is a cake.....

"The Rent Collector" - Camron Wright

"Yes!" she says. "Literature is a cake with many toys baked inside--and even if you find them all, if you don't enjoy them all, if you don't enjoy the path that leads you to them, it will be a hollow accomplishment.  There was a playwright named Heller, American, I believe, who summed it up this way.  He said, 'They knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it.' "

If any of you have read this book, you will know what unique style Camron has as he is writing a story about a family that lives in the sanitation dump in Cambodia.  He does a great job with metaphors and imagery, with helping you feel a part of the story.  Throughout the book with words used, you can smell the smells and visualize the filth and garbage all around.  In this particular paragraph, one of the main characters is trying to teach another lady how to read.  Before she is willing to work with her on reading, though, she wants her to learn the importance of literature. As she learned to have appreciation for literature, it made the reading become more enjoyable.

With this metaphor and comparing literature to a cake "with many toys baked inside," it makes me visualize a piece of cake, but when biting into it, there are toys!  A strange thing!  But just as everyone should love cake, they are also supposed to like toys--to enjoy toys--and the more you enjoy the toys, the more you will enjoy literature.  I think this writer is having fun trying to make the point that this teacher really wants the student to learn to love to read.

One thing that I really liked that "When Words Collide" talked about was that "these writers are having fun.  What grabs us when we read these sentences, what makes us smile, is the unique vision, the odd, surprising or wonderfully apt comparisons."  I can see this in this particular paragraph, as I see it throughout this book.

It takes time to learn to love to read and once you do, it will be like eating a piece of cake!