Literary notes about Screech (AI summary)
In literature, “screech” is deployed as both a literal and metaphorical device to evoke sharp, unsettling sounds and the emotions they conjure. Writers use it to depict the harsh cry of an animal—a screech-owl, for instance, often signals ill fortune or mystery ([1], [2], [3])—while it also serves metaphorically to capture intense human responses, such as a screech of anger or grief ([4], [5]). Moreover, the word conveys the abrasive noise of machinery or nature, heightening tension in moments of foreboding or chaos ([6], [7]). In these ways, “screech” enriches the auditory landscape of a narrative, deepening the reader’s sensory engagement with both character and setting.
- In the day-time she changed herself into a cat or a screech-owl, but in the evening she took her proper shape again as a human being.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - But, in the case of the screech owl, the sounds were always of evil omen, from whatever side they came.
— from The Trial of Jesus from a Lawyer's Standpoint, Vol. 2 (of 2) The Roman Trial by Walter M. (Walter Marion) Chandler - Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house, That nothing sung but death to us and ours.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - He then looked at me with one raised eyebrow until he received his reward; a screech of anger.
— from Through These Eyes The courageous struggle to find meaning in a life stressed with cancer by Lauren Ann Isaacson - " The youth desired to screech out his grief.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane - " Just then the locomotive gave a sharp screech, and the train passed out into the darkness of the night.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - "Passing a bow, like an enlarged violin bow, swiftly across an aluminum tuning fork, he produced a screech like intense radio static.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
