Jamie Blog Post #2

To me the most interesting literary aspect is the way that Farmer describes the setting of the novel.  I particularly enjoy the way she uses figurative language subtly.  An example of this is a passage from page 29, "“Here there was nothing, not even the wind over the poppy fields or the murmur of doves in their nests on the roof.  The silence was terrifying.”  I love the way she describes the doves and the atmosphere without even having to say that it was a quiet and lonely place.  Another example that I like is from page 19, "The poppies, now blue in the long shadows of the hills, stretched away in all directions."  What I like about this passage is that when she says the long shadows stretched away in all directions, my mind instantly creates the image of a very long stretch, meaning that Matt is cut off from the rest of the world.  Farmer is able to describe the setting using vivid imagery, and shows us the story instead of telling it.  She does not say where the fields are located; instead she chooses to show that it is isolated.