除了人物，我们常常还要就事物进行描写。我们还是从比较简单的看起。

The Delicatessen

…Down in the town on a corner of what was, comparatively speaking, our busiest street, there was a neat and attractively stocked delicatessen store, a branch, if I am not mistaken, of a Wiesbaden firm. It was patronized by the best society. My way to school led me past this shop daily and I had stopped in many times, coin in hand, to buy cheap candies, fruit drops or barley sugar. But on going in one day I found it empty not only of customers but of attendants ass well. There was a little bell on a spring over the door, and this had rung as I entered; but either the inner room was empty or its occupants had not heard the bell-I was and remained alone. The glass door at the rear was covered by some pleated material. At first the emptiness surprised and startled me, it even gave me an uncanny feeling; but presently I began to look about me, for never before had I been able to contemplate undisturbed the delights of such a spot. It was a narrow room, with a rather high ceiling, and crowded from floor to ceiling with goodies. There were rows and rows of hams and sausages of all shapes and colours-white, yellow, red, and black; fat and lean and round and long-rows of canned preserves, cocoa and tea, bright translucent glass bottles of honey, marmalade, and jam; round bottles and slender bottles filled with liquors and punch-all these things crowded every inch of the shelves from top to bottom. Then there were glass showcases where smoked mackerel, lampreys, flounders, and eels were displayed on platters to tempt the appetite. There were dishes of Italian salad, crayfish spreading their claws on blocks of ice, sprats pressed flat and gleaming goldenly from open boxes; choice fruits-garden strawberries and grapes as beautiful as though they had come from the Promised Land; rows of sardine tins and those foie gras. Plump chickens dangled their necks from the top shelf, and there were trays of cooked meats, ham, tongue, beef, and veal, smoked salmon and breast of goose, with the slender slicing knife lying ready at hand. There were all sorts of cheeses under glass bells, brick-red, milk-white, and marbled, also the creamy ones that overflow their silver foil in golden waves. Artichokes, bundles of asparagus, truffles, little liver sausages in silver paper-all these things lay heaped in rich profusion; while on other tables stood open tin boxes full of fine biscuits, spice cakes piled in criss- cross layers, and glass urns full of dessert candies and candied fruits.

Thomas Mann是一位德国作家，曾获得过诺贝尔文学奖，他的作品较多地关注那些不能很好融入社会的天才。

在这一小段文章中，Mann向我们展示了如何进行分类描写——最简单的一类描写，本文是以一间小小的熟食店作为描写对象。
我们知道，描写可以分为客观描写和印象描写两大类。客观描写试图对事物本身做出准确的报告，其内容独立于观察者对事物的态度和情感。目的在于让读者不用自己的眼睛也能看见这个事物，作者的作用则相当于照相机。而印象描写和客观描写不同，这种描写主要不是提供信息，而是唤起某种情感，也就是说，要让我们感受而不是看到。因此，它的基本目的是通过描写实现感情的交流。本文显然属于后者。

感情交流的过程始于作者。如果作者想要成功地传达自己的感受的话，他就不能仅仅是去体会，哪怕是深刻体会也不够，他自己必须要能够把他的感受准确地定义出来。而真正的情感交流有两种实现途径：直接的和间接的。直接描写比较简单，只需描写情感本身，是happy, excited, 还是upset, frustrated。 间接描写比较复杂，在描写时，作者将情感投射回事物，通过精心挑选所描写的细节将情感渗透到事物中去，使被描写事物能在读者心中激起的情感和作者感受到的相似甚至相同。

我们着重分析一下Mann是如何进行间接描写的。注意，叙述人“I”是一个小男孩，我们通过他的眼睛来观察，在他眼里，这个熟食点充满了诱惑。

“It was patronized by the best society.” 多么羡慕的口气呀！“…and I had stopped in many times, coin in hand, to buy cheap candies, fruit drops or barley sugar.”每天上学放学打这儿路过，都不忘了停下来买点儿东西，而且，是用手里攒着的硬币，可见这家熟食店魅力非同一般。

总体概述之后，作者开始对熟食店本身进行细节描写。但是，细节描写并不等于把所有的内容杂乱地堆在一起就可以了，还需要选择和组织，去掉与主旨不相关的内容，留下相关的，并以合理的顺序展开陈述。

在节选文章中，Mann并没有告诉我们店铺的布局，我们不知道mackerel, lampreys, flounders, and eels的具体摆放顺序，也不知道这些鱼到底是在dishes of Italian salad 的上面呢、下面呢还是在它们的旁边。作者不打算告诉我们这些无关紧要的细节。
为了让我们感受到小男孩地垂涎欲滴，做这样我们看见了从天到地堆得整整齐齐的罐头，让我们看见了玻璃橱窗里面吊人胃口的熏鱼，……他详细地描写了各色熟食的色泽，描写了盛放这些熟食的容器。所有这些，无一不向我们传达着一种特定的感觉。

另外有一点需要注意，在描写细节的时候，我们往往会采取总分的方式，即，先给出一幅大致画面，在用其中一系列的具体形象来扩充这幅画。我们上面的分析实际上也提到了这一点。再举一个例子，“There were all sorts of cheeses under glass-bells, brick-red, milk-white and marbled…”这样的段落描写文中多次出现，大家可以自己找一找。

怎么样，手痒痒了吗？你的生活中肯定也有不少吸引你的小店吧？来，试着写写，注意，不要太泛，要用细节；目标不要选得太大，否则你会失去焦点。看看你的文章能不能为它们带去更多的顾客。