H is for Hawk - first hawk

Question 1

‘And with the last bow pulled free, he reached inside, and amidst a whirring, chaotic clatter of wings and feet and talons and a high-pitched twittering […]’ (13-15)

Answer 1

Macdonald uses alliteration and polysyndeton to present the quick and dramatic series of events that take place as the hawk is brought out of the box. There is also aural imagery (‘whirring’, ‘clatter’, ‘twittering’) that conveys the bird’s chaotic movements.

Question 1

‘The last few seconds before a battle.’ (13)

Answer 1

Here, Macdonald’s use of a metaphor suggests some degree of fear and apprehension as she prepares to meet what she thinks is her bird.

Question 2

‘Everything startling and new-stamped on her entirely astonished brain’ (31)

Answer 2

The adjectives ‘startling’ and ‘astonished’ personify the hawk, showing how Macdonald is able to empathise with this creature.

Question 3

‘the man pulls an enormous, enormous hawk out of the box and in a strange coincidence of world and deed a great flood of sunlight drenches us and everything is brilliance and fury.’ (15-17)

Answer 3

Macdonald’s repetition of ‘enormous’ shows how amazed she is by the size of the bird. Her continued use of polysyndeton also reiterates her excitement and her diction at the end of the sentence (‘brilliance and fury’) conveys her sense of awe upon seeing the bird for the first time.

Question 4

‘She is a conjuring trick. A reptile. A fallen angel. A griffon from the pages of an illuminated bestiary.’ (20-21)

Answer 4

Taken together, these metaphors convey Macdonald’s sense of disbelief; she is astounded that such a creature exists.