Question

“Payah kun,” said the Eldest Magician, meaning, “That is quite right”; and he breathed upon the great rocks and lumps of earth that All-the-Elephant-there-was had thrown up, and they became the great Himalayan Mountains, and you can look them out on the map. . . .



Then the Moon rose big and full over the water, and the Eldest Magician said to the hunchbacked old man who sits in the Moon spinning a fishing-line with which he hopes one day to catch the world, “Ho! Fisher of the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?”



–“The Crab That Played with the Sea,”

Rudyard Kipling

How does the use of imagery create meaning?

The imagery emphasizes the compassion and authority of the Eldest Magician.
The imagery explains how the animals are responsible for creating nature.
The imagery reveals the power that the old man has over the moon.
The imagery highlights the importance of earth, Moon, and Sea.

Answer 1

The imagery highlights the importance of earth, Moon, and Sea.

It draws attention to the cosmic roles of those elements (mountains rising from the earth, the Moon over the water, the Moon-fisher playing with the Sea), creating a mythic sense of their interconnected significance.