h is for hawk

para 1

p - Macdonald emphasises her nervousness when meeting the first bird, highlighting its terrifying and awesome power and the fear it strikes in her

e - Evident when she says “Scratching talons... Thump”

a - This use of Asyndeton here mimicking a heartbeat shows the escalating heart rate of the writer, emphasising her fear of the bird and her initial thoughts of the bird's power.

e - “cutting the air”

a - using a metaphor here emphasises that the bird has the power to break nature itself and brings fear and awe to the reader.

para 2

p - However, after she meets it, Macdonald falls quickly in love with it, presenting it as almost heavenly, suggesting she views the bird as a saviour

e - ‘angel’

a - the metaphor is religious imagery. Presenting the bird as heavenly. She is gazing at the bird in awe how you would gaze at an angel.

e - ‘All at once I loved this man’

a - the hyperbole ‘all at once’ emphasises that Macdonald is seeking a replacement for her father, and as such, as soon as she sees the paternal behaviour from the man, she ‘loves’ him. She also describes it as a ‘broken marionette’ emphasising she wants to both protect it and be protected by it

para 3

p - However, we see Macdonald’s fear resurface as she meets the second bird, which she cannot understand and cannot bond with in any way due to its terrible and frightening presence

e - ‘some madness from a distant country’

a - metaphor, suggests the bird is war-like and insane, dangerous and unstable. ‘Distant country’ shows how she doesn’t even think the bird is related or from the same place as the first bird because it’s so different, and as such, she cannot understand it.

e - ‘But this isn’t my hawk’

a - the repetition shows her sense of panic. She doesn’t want to accept the fact that she can’t have the first hawk. She is trying to calm herself down by convincing herself that she will get the first bird, suggesting she is unable to accept or bond with the second bird.

para 4

p - Perhaps we can see Macdonald’s hatred for the second bird as a microcosm of her broader feelings of grief; she is afraid of it because not only does it reiterate the loss of control she felt when her father died, but because it reminds her of her own grieving self.

e - “madwoman”…‘Medea’

a - This metaphor has great significance as she is afraid of and hates the bird because of its seeming madness and insanity, but later refers to herself using Greek mythology as famous madwoman Medea, implying she unconsciously registers the similarity between them, explaining her hatred for it as hatred for herself.

e - “white-faced woman with wind-wrecked”

a - This is again significant as the alliteration of W, mirroring the wild wailing of grief, shows that she is unable to accept who she is, even at the end of the story, showing her inability to accept the reality of the bird, as it is too much for her grieving heart to manage.