Noughts and Crosses essay

How does Malorie Blackman create a vivid picture of the bomb and its aftermath in this passage?

A shocked atmosphere concludes this chapter with a bombing of Dundale shopping centre in the book noughts and crosses, Malorie Blackman makes the aftermath and bombing of the Dundale shopping centre very vivid for the reader by using very interesting and useful word and phases.

Firstly, Malorie Blackman uses many ominous hints and foreshadowing to create a vivid picture of what was about to happen in chapter forty -nine.

"A tense, watchful atmosphere entered the room like a chilling fog". This creates pathetic fallacy this shows that they are all on edge with one another and that they can't be natural it is as if their emotions have been chilled and this suggests something bad is going to happen.

The writer uses similes such as "blown off my feet into the air like a dry leaf in high wind "this is an effective techniques because it tells the reader that the explosion struck so hard that Persephone Hadley seemed to literally fly in the air and the words "dry" give the reader the feel of how hot it may be that she becomes this "dry".

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This gives the explosion the power to "throw" her away because of the impact using personification .The phrase "fraction of a second" tells the reader that it happened so fast that she was unable to even stop or control her actions and she was just being thrown in the air like a toy .

"Billowing smoke shot out of the shopping centre". This makes the smoke come alive, like it has moved and shaped its way .The way that smoke "shot" out gives it a lot of energy and this creates movement into the picture. The adjective "billowing" may also give it energy and make the smoke grow, so therefore personification is used to enhance the picture of smoke coming out of the shopping centre.

Another example would be "intense heat" the effect of this on the reader will make them feel just how big the blast was on sephy's back and how close it was to her even though she was a certain distance away to the blast.

Blackman also uses onomatopoeia to create an image of the bomb in our minds. Some examples in this passage include; "boom "and "popped". These words make the passage descriptive and it give attention to what's going on; these make the picture in our mind more detailed and concise.

Overall, Malorie Blackman uses many techniques such as similes, adverbs, Verbs, adjectives and onomatopoeia to create on accurate image of the bomb scene in our minds, to engage us the audience in the novel and make us a part of the novel.