The dark figurative language: "faint with thirst", "darkness of the Earth", "threatened to swallow up the entire waiting room", are a few examples found within just the first chapter. Gundar-Goshen creates this sense of sadness mixed with a kind of anxiety and tension through this evocative figurative language, urgent diction, and a structure that often begins with interior monologue from an initially unknown source.
(d) Setting:
The story of Waking Lions takes place in Israel. Eitan lives with his family in Beersheba, a dusty, brown, filth-ridden town he was forced to relocate to after a professional dispute at his previous job in Tel Aviv. The story is contemporary, and in being so acts as a lens into socioeconomic disparities created by
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From the opening few sentences to the explosive conclusion—what was once Hebrew has found its way to English perfectly. There are no significant metaphors or similes that repeat often. Rather, the power of these literary devices seems to stem from their specificity and abundance in the story. However, a pattern of imagery is definitely prevalent. Description in the novel all circles around the idea of dust and dirt, being dirty, being broken, and being guilty. Many times, because of the racism inherent in many of the protagonists, African migrants are described as having "faded clothes, hooded eyes" and "blazing anger".
Sirkit, when encountering another African man concludes "You might think that they smiled at each other, but that man's eyes had no pupils. They were two dark stains that reflected stairs. And the feet going up and down and up and down. She looked away. Horrified. She didn't need a mirror to know that her eyes were like his. Without pupils. Two dark stains, and stairs." (113). Calling eyes "stains" and showing how people walk "up and down" his eyes are both powerful uses of metaphor and imagery. It paints a bleak picture—one of poverty, discrimination, crime, inequality, and the dust of our planet—that perfectly sets the tone for the tragedy of the