Heat in Passing

This close reading comes from the first paragraph of the second chapter of Part I.  What sticks out most to me in this short excerpt is the fire and heat imagery. Irene uses the words: hot, burning, molten, flame, and others to describe the day that she encountered Clare Kendry and while she could have gotten her point across by simply saying it was hot, she did so with so much passion, it is almost like the reader can feel the heat of this day. Because of the strong words used, I believed there is a lot of information that can be drawn from this passage.
            Firstly, this language sets a tone for the rest of the book; by equating the heat of the day to the heat one feels when they are angry, the reader gets a sense of just how strong Irene’s emotions are. Throughout Part I, Irene repeatedly develops feeling of frustration and anger towards Clare and Jack which could be in part due to this blistering heat that she outlines. In psychology, there is a hypothesis that heat can increase aggression. For example, in major league baseball games, the number of batters hit by pitcher doubled when the temperature outside was over 90 degrees. Whether she is aware of it or not, I believe that Irene may be having these intense feelings of anger heightened by the extreme heat of the day.

            I would also like to tie this passage into one later in the text; when Irene is talking to Clare, Gertrude, and Jack. When discussing his disgust for people of African heritage, Jack says, “They give me the creeps. The black scrimy devils.” It is often portrayed that the devil lives in hell which is a pit of heat and flames; so, when Jack likened black people to devils, my mind immediately jumped back to the passage I have been referring to. It is also interesting that at the end of the passage, Irene says the line, “flame fanned by slow bellows”. She uses the word bellows which is eerily similar to Jack and Clare’s last name which is Bellew; yet another indicator that Irene is hinting towards her later conversation with him.

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