H is for Hawk is an award-winning memoir or is an autobiography.

It
tells the story of Helen Macdonald’s attempt to cope with her violent
grief after the sudden death of her father. To try and find some
meaning in her increasingly chaotic and lonely life, she decides to train
a young goshawk, a beautiful but difficult bird of prey to handle. Her
father had introduced her to the world of falconry, and she believes it
will honor his memory.

The extract ‘H Is for Hawk’ explores the writer’s emotional feelings and
astonishment at her first encounter with the bird she plans to adopt. It
opens in media res or the middle of the encounter between Macdonald
and the man who is selling her the goshawk. This creates excitement
and instills a sense of action and immediacy. the reference to technical
jargons ‘ring numbers’, ‘Article 10’, clearly states that hawks are
covered by the law. These are the yellow forms he pulls out. These
forms introduce a key theme: the tension between freedom and
captivity. The falconer, whom, she introduces using the pronoun ‘he’
even educates the readers about the strict regulations in purchasing
endangered species.

The second paragraph begins with a short simple sentence, ‘We noted
the numbers.’ The asyndeton ‘We stared down the boxes ...carefully
tied string.’, signals the scrutiny she puts into examining the birds.
Descriptive and short sentences in the second paragraph bring the
minute details of how the bird is caged. Listing and visual imageries
detail the writer’s keen observatory nature and help the readers to
visualize its habitat.

The phrases ‘dark interior and small box’ bring the impression that the
bird is improperly cared for – a long way from its natural home.
Through the onomatopoeic and italicized word ‘thump’ the writer
introduces the violent and powerful bird. The metaphor ‘sudden thump
of feathered shoulders’ extends its arrogance at the presence of
humans ‘like us’. A terrifying picture of the unseen bird is created
through the violent phrases ‘a sudden thump, box shook, as if someone
had punched’. The simile compares the sound to someone punching
the box. These techniques create a sense of foreboding and dread at
what is inside the box.

A series of short sentences in the third paragraph build up the curiosity

to see the unseen bird and elevates the readers on the verge of
excitement. Through these sentences, the writer has succeeded in
paralyzing the emotions of the readers for a short moment. The short,
fragmented, incomplete sentences ‘Concentration. Infinite caution’
slow down the sense of time, creating tension. The repeated ‘c’,‘t’,and
‘n’ sound set up a slow rhythm like the ticking of a clock.

The present continuous verb ‘scratching’ shows the bird’s restlessness

at the ‘fearful sights’. The sentences remain short, but the
onomatopoeic sound is introduced. ‘Scratching talons, another thump.
And another. Thump.’ Rule of three and military metaphor point to the
chaotic nature of the bird as the falconer takes from the box. In
addition, it also shows the bird’s struggle to break the chains of
captivity.

The sentence starts in the simple past tense but opens with the word
‘And’, keeping up the momentum. The tense then suddenly changes to
the present tense, and the writing becomes deliberately confusing, to
mimic Macdonald’s shock and the shock of the hawk as it is released
into the daylight. The whole atmosphere is drenched in ‘clattering,
whirring and twittering’. These auditory imageries or onomatopoeic
words help the readers to absorb the noisy atmosphere before it is
taken from the box.

The repetitive adjective ‘enormous’ paints the impressive physique of

the bird, thus bringing the writer’s wonderment at its size. The
juxtaposed term ‘brilliance and fury’ brings the writer’s mixed feelings
at her first encounter with the hawk, she thinks the bird is brilliant and
at the same time dangerous too.