The Pilot’s Wife

Para 3

This paragraph uses language and style to create a foreboding atmosphere and inject some
humor into the passage. The use of the third person omniscient narrator gives the reader
insight into the protagonist’s inner thoughts, as in, “She never understood why…winter.”
The alliteration of f’s in “freezing floorboards” together with the tactile imagery of cold used
in “freezing” and “lost all its warmth” creates a foreboding atmosphere in this paragraph.
There is also some humor created in this paragraph to entertain the reader. This humor is
created through the image of, “her black leggings …. fingers.” There is variation in sentence
starters, with the short sentence “Had dreamed it,” written using free indirect speech,
bringing the reader closer to the character’s frame of mind – where this thought has
occurred somewhat abruptly. The final sentence uses imagery to capture her disoriented
state of mind by humorously depicting her use of overt force when putting down the alarm
clock, “so hard that the case popped open and a battery rolled under the bed.”