1. ABSTRACT TO CONCRETE LANGUAGE
Improving writing through the use of imagery and figurative language to develop theme and tone

2. Learning Targets
I understand how writers use figurative language and imagery to relay an underlying theme or tone.
I can use concrete details to represent an abstract idea.
I can choose important details and appropriate metaphors to enhance the development of tone and theme in my own writing.

3. What are abstractions? Example: Sadness
What are concrete details?
Examples: metaphors like heavy waves or sensations like hot tears etc.

4. Why is this important?
You could be ‘sad’ that the lunchroom is out of General Tso’s.
I could be ‘sad’ because I just found out that a family member has cancer.

5. What is the metaphor. What is the abstract idea it represents
What is the metaphor? What is the abstract idea it represents? To what effect?
“Come from the South, blow with the wind- poom!- North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen.”
“As I began to play, the boy disappeared, the color ran out of the room, and I saw only my white pieces and his black one’s waiting on the other side. A light wind began blowing past my ears. A wind whispered secrets only I could hear. ‘Blow from the South’ it murmured, ‘The wind leaves no trace.’”
“My mother’s eyes turned to dangerous black slits. She had no words for me, just sharp silence. I felt the hot wind rush around my ears.”

6. What is the metaphor. What is the abstract idea it represents
What is the metaphor? What is the abstract idea it represents? To what effect?
“I learned about the middle game [in chess] and why tactics between two adversaries are like clashing ideas.”
“Her black men advanced across the plane, slowly marching to each successive level as a single unit. My white pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one. As her men drew closer to my edge, I felt myself growing light.”

7. How are the two metaphors intertwined at the end? To what end?
“Higher and higher, above the alley over the tiled roofs, where I was gathered up by the wind and pushed toward the night sky until everything below me disappeared and I was alone. I closed my eyes and pondered my next move.”

8. Make a list of abstractions
Make sure you have many good examples because they will help you later!