H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald

To try and find some meaning in her increasingly chaotic and lonely life, Helen Macdonald
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.

At the beginning of the extract, the legal procedures in adopting a hawk are informed through the
direct speech of the falconer.

The reference to technical jargon ‘ring numbers’, ‘Article 10’, 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 humorous dialogue ‘Don’t want you going home with the wrong bird’ sets up suspicion
in the reader’s mind. This line also signals the upcoming conflict in the extract. The asyndeton
‘We stared down the boxes, …carefully tied string.’, signals the scrutiny she puts into
examining the birds.

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’.

Agricultural imagery or metaphor ‘Daylight irrigating the box’ illustrates how sunlight slowly
penetrates the ‘dark interior’ of the box by making the hawk visible to the writer.

The verb to irrigate means to bring water to a dry area. Here it is used to describe sunlight
pouring into the bird’s box. The image is effective because it is strange.

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.

Macdonald uses a very odd image ‘a great flood of sunlight drenches us.’ The imagery of
water in ‘flood’ and ‘drenches’ echoes the word ‘irrigating’. Macdonald is using the violent
water imagery to stress how overwhelming the sight of the hawk is to her.
The bird’s jagged feathers are compared in the simile to the spikes of a porcupine. This image
makes the bird aggressive and violent. It is frightening.

Hyperbole/personification ‘my heart jumps’ brings forth her emotional response as she sees the
bird.

The present continuous verbs or gerunds ‘folding, anchoring, gripping’ further elaborate his
skillful control of the bird or his experience as a falconer. Helen uses the metaphorical verb
‘anchoring’ to show how the bird is secured, and it makes the readers understand the extent of
security given.

The hawk’s ‘wild eyes’ is metaphorically linked with the color of ‘sun on white paper’
illustrating the beauty of the hawk. Fear and unfamiliarity of the natural world are conveyed
through the hyperbole ‘they stared because the whole world had fallen into them’.

The single exclamatory word ‘Oh’ is powerful in its ability to suggest several different emotions
as the writer realizes the mistake. Moreover, it heightens the upcoming suspense behind the
ownership of the bird.

The metaphor of the ‘madwoman in the attack’ alludes to Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ where
the protagonist’s groom is hiding his mad first wife in the attic. This suggests that the bird is
hostile and insane.

Hyperbolic line ‘Some madness from a distant country’ paints the writer’s unfamiliarity with
the wildness of the bird or her desperate mind has failed to build an emotional connection.

Through the metaphorical phrase or idiom ‘monstrous breach of etiquette’, The adjective
‘monstrous’ shows the enormity of her act or brings out her innate feelings of regret for
demanding the second bird.

The rhetorical question 'She's more beautiful than the first one, isn't she?' accommodates a
sense of irony as the author reveals at the beginning of the extract how she abhors the second
hawk.

The allusion brought through the simile “as if she were in a seaside production of Medea”
alludes to the Greek telling of the woman who killed her children as revenge for her faithless
husband.

This extract ends with a cliffhanger ‘There was a moment of total silence’ as the author does
not state the falconer’s response to her unusual and awkward request and whether the man will
give her the bird she wants. It creates tension and anticipation in the readers.