B7 - LWD (5th Floor)

When it says he swallowed his own teeth, it may show that he blames himself and that he self sabotaged. It also says that they were sharper than he had ever known so maybe he didn’t know they were capable of hurting him like they did which caught him off guard. I think this imagery is reused to just emphasize how he feels.

“It was like the words came out and at the same time went back in. Went down into me and chewed on everything inside as if I had somehow swallowed my own teeth and they were sharper than I’d ever known.”

The words he would’ve let out would be so dark and dreadful so he decided not to, but keeping them in would darken his soul and heart and it would hurt him just as it would've hurt to say them out loud. When I read this page I imagined something picking on all of the light and happiness he had inside of him and making sure there is no more life and color left in his body.

I think he reuses this image to emphasize on the feelings that Will constantly has and what it truly makes him feel like.

I think Reynolds uses the image of swallowing his own teeth and them being sharper than ever because Will felt like when he said “and shoots” and we can infer that Will didn’t like saying those words out loud.

Reynold's uses the imagery of being chewed up and swallowed again. Will had said that it felt like he was swallowing sharp teeth. It was hard for Will to admit that he would actually shoot someone. He would be like the man who shot Shawn.

“The end?” / he murmured, / looking at Buck, / motioning for a light. / It’s never the end, / Uncle Mark said, / all chuckle, chuckle. / He leaned toward Buck. / Never” (192). What can we infer that Uncle Mark means here? That Will killing Riggs is just the beginning of the movie and the consequences of getting revenge on Riggs will go on forever.

“Went down into me and chewed on everything inside” (190). This is very similar to when Reynolds wrote about the ground swallowing Will when Shawn died. I think he reused this image to show that he felt the same feeling in these two situations. One was when he saw his brother dead with two bullet holes in his chest and the other situation was when he said he would shoot Riggs out loud.

Because it shows the internal conflict Will is having because subconsciously he knows he can't do this. the reuse of this image really shows this internal war Will is having.

This imagery really stands out to me because it really conveys how Will feels. It tells us that before he actually had to say it, he hadn’t realized the reality of what he was going to do. It shows us how guilty he feels on the inside and for the decision he’s been “forced” to make. It also shows how surprised Will feels, the teeth representing his intentions and how it’s affecting the person he thought he was

“Chewed on everything/ Inside…” Reynolds uses this to show how Will saying this hurt him mentally because he might not actually be ready to take another persons life

He makes it seem like the words, which symbolize the action, are eating him inside out, that the thought of it, just admitting out loud, is enough to tear him on the inside, that itself is sharp enough to destroy him. Then it makes one imagine what happens when he actually does it.

I think Reynolds uses the particular image of Will’s teeth cutting himself and this is because it shows how powerful words can be. Reynolds also uses the imagery of Will's teeth because the teeth relate to the words from Will and the words are Will’s thoughts running through his body making him think about what he has just done.

Examine the imagery Will uses on p. 190 (“So Anyway, After I Said It”). Choose one particular image in this section to focus on. Why do you think Reynolds uses (or re-uses!) this particular image?