Opening sentence
The opening sentence is imagery that confirms Havaa’s fears that she saw in her dreams. The imagery also sets the pace for readers to comprehend that the tone and mood of the rest of the story are gloomy and disheartening. The author writes, “On the morning after the Feds burned down her house and took her father, Havaa woke from dreams of sea anemones. While the girl dressed, Akhmed, who hadn’t slept at all, paced outside the bedroom, watching the sky brightening on the other side of the window glass; the rising sun had never before made him feel late.”
The village
The atrocities of the Fed towards innocent people are demonstrated using imagery. In a single night, forty-one people could disappear just like that. Akhmed’s artwork vividly shows the village's pain and fear. The author writes, “At the end of the village where the forest narrowed on the road, they passed a meter-tall portrait nailed to tree trunk. Two years earlier, after forty-one of the villagers had disappeared in a single day; Akhmed had drawn their forty-one portraits on forty-one ply boards, weatherproofed them, and hung them throughout the village.”
Taste imagery of bus terminus
The bus terminus is best described using sight imagery. The author writes, “Dark plumes drifted from distant smokestacks, a chain of wind-rounded mountains, the taste of post-Soviet air like a dirty rag in her mouth. When they reached the bus terminus, she waited until her roller suitcase was safely on the ground before paying the driver.”
