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How Does Mcdougall Use Vivid Imagery In Born To Run

506 Words3 Pages

First off, Christopher McDougall uses vivid imagery to portray all the interesting characters he meets on his quest for pain free running. The author goes a little overboard “out-of-work, bronco-busting, Harley-riding, hard-rock miner,” when describing prominent individuals like Ken Chlouber, the creator of the Leadville 100 miler. (McDougall 57). Dougall continues to use such flagrant diction when describing characters such as Caballo Blanco, or Scott Jurek. McDougall’s writing revolves around four main ideas: his injury and recovery, the Tarahumara, barefoot running, and scientific studies. McDougall leaps from one storyline to the next, somehow making the story flow smoothly despite the abrupt changes in content. The theme weaving throughout the entirety of Born to Run is, as the title suggests, that humans are made to be the best distance runners on the planet. The Tarahumara, a native American tribe who run more than a hundred miles at a time, are used as examples in Born to Run to show how humans are supposed to be. The dress of the Tarahumara is always colorful, “his bright red shirt flowed behind him like flames and his white skirt whipped his legs like a trail of smoke” as the author shows in his similes (McDougall 40). Cultural Work …show more content…

This shows as a culture, Americans put a lot of faith in science and the answers it provides. Human’s recreation, such as marathons, show that “our imagination is rooted in running.”(McDougall 239) People love the feeling of pushing the boundaries of their bodies: it is exhilarating. Born to Run has studies in it that show a link between economic recessions and a sudden increase in runners. This shows a natural reaction to solve problems by running through them. Although present society is not the most active in history, there is a longing to let loose the runner inherited from prehistoric

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