Meeting imagery
Marisa describes a meeting with the Heads Club, using imagery to set the scene:
"If you had been in the room with me, you would have watched twenty-five suit jackets tossed aside as we adjusted to the stuffy room, overheated by an aging radiator hard at work on a cold winter day. You'd have heard twenty-five coffee cups clinking as we made room around the table for dessert."
With her use of imagery, she emphasizes the stuffiness and heat of the room, which is contrasted with the cold weather outside. Additionally, with the use of language such as "stuffy" and "overheated," she also creates a good environment for the tension of the next few pages to unfold, as a colleague of hers is accused of "poaching" an employee from another school.
Barack Obama
Marisa uses imagery to describe President Barack Obama, who she first encountered at a conference in the White House. She especially focuses on the fact he looks fatigued and tired and suggests this might be due to his demanding job:
"I was struck by the fact that his genuine smile didn't mask the fatigue in his eyes... the bags under his eyes reflected the fact that there was a lot on his mind."
Overall, this imagery portrays Obama in a positive light, depicting him as being genuine and kind, but also hard-working and under a lot of pressure.
Julissa Marenco
Imagery is used to emphasize Julissa Marenco's bold and courageous personality. For example, Porges describes how "Julissa's booming voice enters a room ten seconds before she does," with the word "booming" emphasizing the fact she has a strong presence.
Porges emphasizes how Julissa's "energy matches her physical presence, right down to her colorful outfits and four-inch heels." As such, imagery is used here as a means of character development, to introduce Julissa as having a strong, ambitious, and colorful personality.
Lieutenant Shannon
In a similar way to Julissa, Lieutenant Shannon is also described with imagery, which emphasizes her strong and admirable character. For example, she is described as "standing tall in her specially embroidered "shit hot" flight suit," and as having " a standoff demeanor, combat stories, and long blond hair." Here, Marisa captures a sense of admiration for Lieutenant Shannon, which she encourages in the reader with the use of imagery.
Imagery and tension
When describing a somewhat traumatic memory of flying over the Pacific ocean while low on fuel, Porges uses imagery to set the scene and produce a feeling of tension:
"The sky was pitch-black as our jet circles over the western Pacific, hundreds of miles from dry land. We were totally alone, except for the lumbering Air Force KC-135 tanker looming a quarter of a mile from us."
The use of language such as "pitch-black," "lumbering" and "looming," all add to the sense of urgency, reflecting the panic and stress she felt at the time.
As her readers might not be familiar with her experiences flying a plane, Porges uses imagery to set the scene and describe what she was seeing at the time; for example, she describes the "neon-green glow from my night-vision goggles," and the "small lights on the tanker drove," and describes that they were "trying to dock with what looked like an alien mother ship." By using this kind of imagery, Porges opens up the experiences so that readers can understand, even though they might not have experienced something similar.
Eliza
Imagery is used to describe student Eliza, who is depicted as being the picture of happiness:
"As seventeen-year-old Eliza strides into the room, her white canvas sneakers squeak as she bounces across the polished wood floor. Her smile is contagious and her optimism is visible. Like many of her classmates, she is still basking in the glow of high school graduation."
Eliza's happiness and good mood are reflected with imagery; for example, she "bounces" across the room, and is described as "basking in the glow of high school graduation," which are both images of joy. This depiction also effectively contrasts her with Walid, a teenager of a similar age who has had very different life experiences.
The refugee camps
Porges describes her time interviewing people in refugee camps, describing the "converted metal shipping containers that families call home at refugee camps on the Syrian border." Here, she uses imagery to depict the "metal shipping containers," emphasizing the lack of warmth and homeliness of the refugee camps.
Cloud-surfing
Porges describes working in the Navy and sets the scene by using imagery. For example, she describes what it was like to "cloud-surf," telling us that it meant "ten minutes aggressively banking the jet between cotton-candy shaped clouds as if we were riding the ocean waves far below on a surfboard." This use of imagery depicts how the clouds looked, and how the experience felt, which allows the reader the understand it without having experienced it themselves.
