H is for Hawk

Summary

Genre: Extract from a novel/autobiography. The chapter ending is cut here, creating a cliff-hanger which is not in the original text at this point.

Voice: 1st person, subjective narrative focused on the birds and the narrator. Note that the bird-handler remains anonymous throughout. He is seen as competent in counterpoint to the awe-struck and utterly incompetent Macdonald.

Purpose: To explore the attraction of the terrifying and to move the narrative forward. MacDonald has ordered a falcon from Eastern Europe. When this section begins, the tension of the arrival of the bird is already high. This is the moment of truth.

Structure:

1: Begins in medias res as the handler checks the crates. Information and emotion will therefore be revealed as we read.

2: Beginning to open box 1 and description of the first hawk. SHort sentences abound, with asyndetic listing to suggest the frequency and range of thoughts entering the narrator’s mind. Her emotions switch suddenly from horror to awe  or from revulsion to attraction. Metaphor is widely used to describe the beast.

3: Her emotion is contrasted with the calmness of ‘the man’ who is seen to care deeply for this bird. This produces an upsurge of emotion – ‘I loved this man, and deeply’ – which then reflects onto the specific hawk.

4: Sadness at realisation that this was the ‘wrong bird’: oh.

5: Bird 2, her bird. There is no awe or wonder here. All is horror. A neat pun on ‘madwoman in the attic’ says more about the narrator’s control of the narrative than about the bird.

6: Italics introduce her rising panic. Direct speech shows the fractured nature of her emotional response.

7: Description of herself in a state of wild frenzy. His decision is possibly implied, but we do not get to hear it.