Literary notes about Direct (AI summary)
The word "direct" assumes many nuances in literary contexts, often conveying immediacy, clarity, or an unmediated connection. It sometimes underlines a physical or metaphorical path that is straightforward and unambiguous—as when characters commit to a course of action without detour ([1], [2]), or when narratives emphasize an instantaneous, almost unfiltered, expression of emotion or judgment ([3], [4]). In other instances, "direct" is used to denote precise instruction or command, whether addressing an object, a person, or abstract ideas, as seen in appeals for immediate response ([5], [6]) or in grammatical contexts where it contrasts with the indirect ([7], [8]). This multiplicity of senses enriches literary language, enabling authors to articulate both literal directions and symbolic, unmediated relationships between ideas and actions ([9], [10]).
- When returning from Cananor he shaped a direct course across the Indian Ocean to Mozambique.
— from A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499 - Chalco and Texcoco are divided by a narrow strip of land over which the direct road to the city runs.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - This is direct religion, which is full of anxiety and responsibility for him who attempts its steep cliffs.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - His poetry is the Spenserian pastoral stripped of its refinement of feeling and made direct, coarse, vigorous.
— from English Literature by William J. Long - But everything must be done as I direct.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - 'If you can direct me how to send proposals, I should wish that they were in such hands.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - Interrogative sentences, 2 f.; order in, 3 ; do , did in, 114 ; direct and indirect questions,
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - Turn all the indirect questions which you have just written into direct questions.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - But the soul is also real, it too is positive and direct, No reasoning, no proof has establish'd it, Undeniable growth has establish'd it.
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman