Diction And Imagery In Seeing Eye By Brad Watson

The short story “Seeing Eye” written by Brad Watson tells of a blind man and his service dog. The setting of the story takes place at a stop light, the dog is helping his owner cross the street. Instead of the story being told from the man’s point of view, it is told from the dog’s eyes. This point of view challenges the status quo because the dog is telling the story of what he sees, smells and hears. The short story uses descriptive diction and imagery to give the reader the unique picture of what the dog is thinking and feeling.

“The sounds of the traffic grinding through the intersection were diminished to a small aural dot in the back of his mind and became aware of the regular beat of a slow turning box fan in an open window of the building behind him” (Watson 78). The word choice gives us a picture of how the dog sees the town and how he is more connected with all of his senses. The sounds of the traffic grinding is unique diction because it gives us a picture of how the dog hears. Dog’s hearing is said to be better than humans, because of the word choice we can imagine that everyday life in the city sounds awful to him. The dog also smells familiar scents that remind him where he is at, and helps him make his next move,

The dog then sneezed, the city is polluted by people and vehicles that smoke, along with the smell of rubber and trash. The smell and the sounds of the town starts to get him angry, which the owner then had to calm him down. The dog doesn’t understand what’s going on so he is alarmed and he becomes more cautious and