As you read this excerpt from paragraphs 6 -7 of “New Directions,” think about the meaning of the word aroma.
As the dinner noon bell rang, she dropped the savors into boiling fat and the aroma rose and floated over to the workers who spilled out of the gin, covered with white lint, looking like specters. Most workers had brought their lunches of pinto beans and biscuits or crackers, onions, and cans of sardines, but they were tempted by the hot meat pies which Annie ladled out of the fat.
Even if readers don’t know the exact definition of aroma, they can make an inference about its meaning from the specific evidence in the text—the food that Annie is dropping into the fat sends out a smell that “floated over to” the workers. You know that smells travel through air. Therefore, you can guess that the denotation, or dictionary definition, of aroma is “a smell.”
In this excerpt, Maya Angelou could have used the word smell rather than aroma because both words have the same dictionary meaning, or denotation. However, think about what happens when aroma is substituted for smell. The word aroma suggests, or connotes, a pleasant, satisfying smell. It helps to explain why the workers would be “tempted” by Annie’s cooking. Aroma has a positive connotation. By contrast, the noun smell is very general. It just means an odor that your nose senses. It has a neutral connotation because it does not suggest a shade of meaning. By itself, it has no emotional connotation at all.
