Literary Elements

Writer Halima Bashir does an amazing job in the use of imagery, and describing in intricate detail what is going on. She also makes things stand out by repeating a certain phrase or idea to make it stick in your brain. The mood especially shines throughout the piece, changing from one to another as her life continues on. One example of imagery is when Bashir describes her experience of being circumcised, or in the books reference "cutting time". When girls in the tribe reach the age of 8 and are supposed to go off to school, they must go through the ritual of circumcision. When Bashir writes A huge, grotesquely fat woman came to join us... The fat lady sat down next to me... I realized that there was no ecaping now." I can just picture her lying there terrified as if i'm in the room. As the ritual continues Bashir describes the procedure "With the first slash of the razor blade, a bolt of agony shot through me like nothing I had ever experienced." Although this isn't the most pleasant thing to imagine, Bashir continues to do an amazing job describing what young girls have to go through. Her use of repetition in the book is seen with her white eye lash. It is first uncovered in the beginning when her father expresses his love for Halima and why she will be so lucky. Later, Halima describes an event when her eyelash is almost ripped out by a man, showing the importance of such a tiny hair. Lastly, when she goes to the doctor he analyzes the eyelash and explains how lucky Halima is. Dr. Hing says "Your daughter-she is very lucky." An example of the mood change is when Halima and Kadiga went with Grandmother to the Lost Valley. You feel the eeriness of the adventure when she writes "We passed through the rocky cleft, the forest closing in all around us, thick and black and mysterious... stillness only broken by the sharp snap of breaking wood and our labored breathing." I am excited to continue reading and see what other literary elements are to come.