Chastisement
Francis witnessed a public chastisement of a woman who had lived with a German soldier during the Occupation of France. As soon as her skull was “shaved clean”, the other woman “approached her and began to undo the fastenings of her clothes”, but the condemned “shushed her aside and undressed herself”. When she was “naked”, the women “jeered” and the men were “still”. There was “no change in the falseness or the plaintiveness of the prisoner’s smile”. One woman even “spat on her”. Then, “with nothing on but a pair of worn black shoes and stockings, walked down the dirt road alone away from the village”. This imagery creates a rather depressing and controversial feeling, for it is the condemned woman who evokes pity and compassion while the crowd repulses. The fact that Francis meets and recognize this woman in Sandy Hill after all those years is troubling too, for it seems as if the author says us that Sandy Hill is not that sleepy and peaceful place as it seems in the very beginning.
Naivety
Clayton is a rather naïve young man but it doesn’t mean that his perception of the world or certain ideas he voices are not worthless. He seems to be a dreamer, an idealist, who thinks that Sandy Hill “doesn’t have any future”, for “so much energy spent in perpetuating the place – in keeping out undesirables.” According to him, it is not “healthy” to think only about “more commuting trains and more parties.” He thinks “people ought to be able to dream big dreams about the future.” This imagery evokes both pleasant and unpleasant emotions at the very same time. On the one hand, Clayton’s idealism inspires, on the other hand, it seems that he is stuck-up.
A goddess
Francis was looking at a passing train. He “smiled at the passengers in the dining car, who could be seen eating eggs and wiping their mouth with napkins as they traveled.” Then he saw “the sleeping-car compartments, with their soiled bed-linen, trailing through the fresh morning like a string of rooming-house windows.” At last, he saw “an extraordinary thing; at one of the bedroom windows sat an unclothed woman of exceptional beauty, combing her golden hair.” This imagery is supposed to recreate unrepeatable beauty of the moment. Francis sees just a glimpse of the woman, but her beauty and her nakedness strike him like a lightning.
