implied meaning

Exercise on

implied meaning, suggestion

Implied meaning is good for

(1)       making the reader interpret, drawing them into creating the story for and in                             themselves.

(2)       planting an assumption in the reader’s mind which you can disappoint with                             the ‘real’ meaning or ‘point’ at the end of the text (the ‘twist’). 

(3)       Economy.

(4)       A ‘hook’, making us wonder what the problem is and so getting ‘into’ the                               story/poem/reminiscence

(5)       Leaving the end open ended.   The reader has to complete it or the writer has                           simply left us with a dilemma

Obviously different writers and texts use implied meaning in different ways to to different degrees.   This exercise is simply to make us aware of the tool if required.

Exercise

Compose a conversation or monologue in which the actual topic is not explicitly mentioned.   It may be an embarrassing matter which the speakers want to avoid being explicit about,  or simply that we, the readers, and breaking in upon the conversation in the middle.  The unmentioned topic may be known by one of the characters talking or by neither, or  the monologue speaker may be unaware of it although he’s talking about it under some misconception (as in Elaine’s poem about the woman who ends up missing a proposal of marriage).