Chapter 10 beginning with 'panic' and ending with 'barren canvas that our lives have become.' The question is: How does Hosseini create the feeling of terror and claustrophobia in this extract?
Hosseini creates feelings of terror and claustrophobia through language and structure. The extract contains lots of vivid description and short sentences. This creates an element of claustrophobia and terror because as a reader you feel like Amir is going through panic and the short sentences could signify his changes in breathing and the repetition of the words 'panic and scream' reinforce how scared Amir is, as he's just going through the motions and the reality of the situation is too much to comprehend that he can't even 'breath' never mind 'scream' because he's been so paralysed by fear no noise will emerge from him.
Furthermore, in this section the change in tenses adds to the feeling of terror. The writer uses present tense and imperatives along with the second person to involve the reader and to empathise with Amir and feel as though you are in that situation and by involving us as the reader directly, it make us feel the claustrophobic and frightening emotions. The is shown through the quote where Amir tells us ' you need air, need it NOW,' the capitalisation and the repetition further along adding to the terror felt by Amir. This is a different to the rest of the novel, which is mostly a first person retrospective narrative. The extract, is also seems more fragmented and which add to the feeling of terror and claustrophobia as you feel there is no escape. In addition, the description of the basement also can be seen as a metaphor that Amir and rest of the people are being' kept in the dark' of reality and they cannot be do anything and are at the mercy of people like Karim to help them to reach safety. The metaphor places a more serious tone as a basement is an underground, dark and claustrophobic area and connotations of the fact that they may...