When describing the interaction between Nur and her client, the author indicates that there is heavy breathing. As Said nears the car where Nur is, “the breathing… [turns] to panting”(195). This panting displays animal imagery of a dog. This describes the client as someone who is lowly like a dog. Immediately after, Said is described to be “almost crawling on his hands and knees”(196) the closer he gets to the car. The fact that Said is described similarly to an animal at this point may be to show the similarities he has to the rich people he despises so much, as Said quickly seems to lose his sense of morality as the story progresses.
“The young man bolted off in the dark like a comet”(196), imagery that shows how quickly the factory owner’s son escapes to save his own life without regard for Nur. This complements Said’s disdainful outlook on upper class people as selfish cowards.
As Said approaches the city, he passes a hill which is a landmark that indicates the city is close. The hill is depicted as “a chunk of the night more solid than the rest”(198). This indicates that the approaching city is darker than night, a truly miserable place. This foreshadows the events that may take place later on, when Said is in the city.
There is some star and sky-related imagery in this chapter, too. As said, the young man bolting “off into the dark like a comet” (196) refers to the movement and colour. Said also heads towards the Martyr’s Tomb “as if he had a compass in his head” (195), which describes how well he knew this particular place, as if he had an arrow pointing him in the right direction. Right before he attacks the couple, he is thinking how “chaos and confusion envelop us all like the vault of the sky” (195). He may mean that nobody can escape the vast emptiness of the skies.
By: Anna Heltmann on February 27, 2009
at 12:31 am