Visual Impressions Of Billy

In Michael Ondaatje’s novel, Billy’s visual impressions are described as monochrome photography repeatedly throughout the entire book. The tones of grey and the exposure of light are used to illustrates places and time events as if it was a series of frames. For example, Billy is describing what he sees as if it was a monochrome photography, in which there is light and “the color grey with remnants of brown” (13). As a camera would, he is scanning “the thirty or so grey cans in one corner of the room, their ellipses, from where [he] sat, setting up patterns in the dark” (13). The photography’s metaphor is seen in Billy’s visual impressions. He records what he sees as a camera would. For example, he “take[s] in all the angles of the room” (18). His perception is visual; the total made up of parts is like a series of frames. In a poetic part of the novel, …show more content…
In other words, the sun light is creating frames of light. The author also specifies the “arcs of sun each time digging into the floor” (33). In brief, the description of the monochrome photography is used as a recurrent metaphor in the novel, emphasizing the enigmatic context of the character of Billy the kid.
In the novel The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, the disposition of photography throughout the whole book is used as a repetitive metaphor. Pictures in black and white are collaged in many parts of the book. Some of these can be related to some part of the book and some of them does not seem to have any real context. Altogether, the author’s work is a collage