Throughout the novel Christie uses different types of figurative language and imagery to make the story more interesting and detailed; Christie uses figurative language such as allusions, metaphors, and similes. The author uses this type of language and imagery whenever she can and mostly uses it to describe the passengers. As Hercule Poirot was dining on the train he spotted, “At the table opposite of them were three men… A big, swarthy Italian was picking his teeth with gusto. Opposite him a spare, neat Englishman had the expressionless disapproving face of the well trained servant. Next to the Englishman was big American in a loud suit” (Christie 19.) Christie uses words that appeal to the audience’s senses and creates an image of the characters…show more content… Again, the author uses imagery to describe other passengers, “The women opposite of him was a mere girl-twenty at a guess...She had a beautiful foreign-looking face, dead white skin, large brown eyes, jet black hair. She was smoking a cigarette in a long holder. Her manicured hands had deep red nails” (Christie 21.) The female passenger looks young with very pale skin as if she was “dead”, with “large brown eyes” and “jet black hair.” This description is used to reveal the suspicious passenger’s appearance and progress the story; the imagery appeals to the visual sense of the readers. An example of a metaphor uses by Christie is when Poirot points out how, “The body—the cage—is everything of the most respectable—but through the bars, the wild animal looks out” (Christie 13.) Poirot explains how the Mr. Ratchett symbolizes a cage which holds a wild animal; the meaning behind this metaphor is that the Ratchett has something evil and secret within him, like an animal. All the imagery and figurative language make the novel more interesting and detailed, causing the readers to think and visualize
