H is for Hawk High Grade Analysis

We meet Helen McDonald when she is trying to get a gosh hawk. Now she is already experienced with having gosh hawks in the past which are kind of bird of prey. But this situation is slightly different in that her father has recently died. So in many ways this is a story not just about getting a bird but this is a story about dealing with grief as well. And with that in mind there are a few key ideas that I'm going to cover that we need to be aware of in this extract. The first thing is that the text mainly focuses on describing two different birds and there are really contrasting presentations of those birds. The second thing is that we see her go through a lot of different thoughts and feelings. We see her

anticipation um before the first bird. We see her awe over the first bird, her joy. We then see her disappointment and concern as she realizes actually the second bird is the one that is hers. And as I've already mentioned, all of this is a story much, much more than just being about getting a bird. It's much deeper for that. And it's all about the birds essentially being like a symbol for her and her going through her grief. And she has this connection, this affinity with the second hawk that she doesn't want to accept. According to Collins dictionary, if you have an affinity with someone or something, you feel that you are similar to them or that you know and understand them very well. So, in other words, Helen McDonald

is a lot like the second hawk that we're going to be looking at. So, as I go through and analyze all the different language, you'll see these ideas in the top corner to remind you what key ideas it is that we're going to be looking at. But these are the three big ones going all the way through this text. So, let's start going through it. starting with the very opening. Now, I'm not going to read the text as I go. I'm going to assume you've already read it. So, if you haven't read it yet, make sure you pause to read before I go through and analyze. But in this first chunk, there are two of the ideas that we can really see going on. Her feelings of anticipation and also a little hint at something that's going to come much

later. The affinity that she has with that second hawk. And that affinity that she has with the second hawk comes in the dialogue said by the I don't even know what this guy's name is. the the bird man, the the falconer, the man selling falcons. And he says, "Don't want you going home with the wrong bird." Now, that is essentially foreshadowing because she almost does go home with the wrong bird. On a kind of plot level there, but also there's that double way of interpreting the word wrong. He means wrong bird as in that bird is yours, that bird isn't yours. that simple understanding of wrong that's foreshadowing what almost happens later. However, this idea of the connection that she has with the hawks,

that's that deeper meaning behind the wrong of the bond that she has with them. The connection that she has with them, the wrong bird, meaning the one that isn't right for her in her state of mind, in her situation right now. Now, it's important to remember that the man saying that dialogue does not intend that second meaning of wrong. He's not being like, "Oh, yes, we must make sure you leave with the bird that has the strongest emotional connection with you." That's not what he's saying. He's saying, "We need to make sure you get the right one." It's us as a reader that pick up this deeper meaning behind the second meaning of wrong. And we don't really pick it up at this point. To be honest, this is very much me coming in

with a meaning I've gained because I've already read the whole thing. So, it is a foreshadowing, but a much much more subtle one that we aren't truly going to appreciate until nearly the very end of the text. The anticipation that she feels is really clear in this uh second paragraph on this slide with the listing. We stare down at the boxes, their parcel tape handles, their doors of thin plywood and hinges of carefully tied string. There's lots of really little specific images in that list which reflects her really focusing, hyperfocusing on the hawk and the box and shows that feeling of anticipation because it suggests that she, you know, can't take her eyes off it. She's really interested in this box. We then have uh

the guy kneeling on the concrete and squinting into its dark interior. So that image of dark interior creates a lot of mystery and suspense, you know, of what's inside the box. And that suspense is then heightened when we get a little bit of a clue of what's inside the box with a sudden thump of feathered shoulders. So that adverb of sudden, you know, unexpected on a matapia, the thump, the sound of the bird, that we had the mystery of knowing nothing about it before with the dark interior. And now all of a sudden we're starting to get a little bit of a hint of what this bird is going to be like. And the hint that we are getting is that it has a lot of power. Look at that analogy. The B box shook as if someone had punched it

hard from within. So that analogy there, that force conoted by punching something is like the power and force of our bird. So we're already getting those little clues of what the bird is like. And that's building that anticipation of Hela McDonald and also us as the reader because one of the key things of course with this is that with it being written in the chronology as it happened, we are experiencing this moment alongside her and therefore going through some of the similar feelings that she went through that sense of anticipation, the awe that we're going to see later, all that kind of stuff. You also get a little bit of tension built with that final line of this second paragraph, the like us. That

simple sentence, that idea of the people being the fearful site also builds a sense of tension because it raises questions for us of how is the bird going to respond given that it doesn't have its hood on. What's going to happen? There is more tension and suspense being built. I have to say I think it's unlikely that they're going to give you a question on tension and suspense for question four for this text just because the tension and suspense is just in this chunk. But just in case you do ever get that question, focus in on this chunk cuz this is where the lion share of the tension and suspense is because in our next section that is where we are actually going to see what the hawk is like. And so that suspense

of wondering what's going to happen gets broken cuz we actually see it. It does however continue on a little bit in the start of this paragraph. Another hinge untied, concentration, infinite caution, daylight irrigating the box. You've got lots of short sentences there. Again, really specific images as well that hyperfocus, that concentration on all the little things that are being done in order to release the box. And again those words of concentration, caution, both connoting skill and attention to detail suggesting that this hawk being incredibly precious and important too. You also get more of the uh growing power of the bird too with the daylight irrigating the box. Now the definition of irrigating, it's actually a word used

in like farming. So to irrigate land means to supply it with water in order to help crops grow. So in this sense, daylight irrigating the box, it's like saying the light is coming in and making our box seem almost like bigger in a way. So if you think about the image we had before of the dark interior, things are changing now. And this image represents that change. It represents that transition to our hawk being released. There is more light. There is more openness. We can see more happening. It also feels like it's creating a feeling of our growing power of the hawk inside of it too. Like the light is helping build the strength of our hawk. We then have more tension building with the scratching talons,

another thump and another thump. So you've got a couple of things going on. You've got the onatia again with the thump and the scratching of the talons. You've also got that repetition, another thump and another thump. And of course, you've got more short sentences. This continues the multiple short sentences I've already mentioned. And this is all about making things feel like it's happening incredibly slowly and like real steady buildup to our hawk slowly being released. I think the use of that on a matipia thump is also quite important in connoting the power of our hawk because if you think about it, it's almost like a thump thump thump of like a Jurassic Park kind of buildup. of something coming. So, what's being

built up here is not just the release of a hawk, but the release of something strong and powerful. We've got another metaphor next with the air turned syrupy, slow, flecked with dust. And that is again about the growing power of our bird. Because if you think about what that metaphor is saying, the air turns syrupy, slow, flecked with dust. It's almost like the atmosphere around the box is changing as the bird is being released, creating a sense of power of the bird because it's like it's changing its environment. Those adjectives, syrupy, slow, fits with our short sentences building tension as well. Everything is a very slow and steady release of this bird that really builds a lot of tension. I feel like I've said

the word tension a lot and I need to just make sure we really understand what I mean by that as well because the words tension and suspense are very similar. If you've seen my 127 hours video, you've seen me define this before, but I'm just going to do it again very quickly. Tension is a feeling of worry and anxiety which makes it difficult for you to relax. So, it's absolutely difficult for us to relax here because we have so many questions about what this bird is going to be like. And the suggestions we've got is that it's going to be a powerful potentially aggressive or violent creature. That is reinforced again by the very last uh metaphor that we have in the buildup of tension. This is our last like before the tension and

suspense is released as the bird finally comes out. We get this metaphor of the last few seconds before a battle. So of course battle would conote that our bird is like going to attack. You know it's that feeling of violence and strength again coming through from that image. So overall our tension and suspense is not just about showing our anticipation of Helen McDonald. There is also a sense of the beginning presentation of the hawk itself and the presentation of the power of that hawk. That is all now going to be made significantly more clear as our bird is released and we get this really long synthetic list. Now, there's a lot for me to break down here for you, but essentially the goal of this really long

sentence is about creating the overwhelming feeling in Helen McDonald as she shifts from anticipation to awe. So you have this line and with the last bow pulled free, he reached inside and amidst a worring chaotic clatter of wings and feet and talons and a high-pitched twittering and it's all happening at once. The man pulls an enormous enormous hawk out of the box and in a strange coincidence of world and deed a great flood of sunlight drenches us and everything is brilliant [gasps] and fury. Beautiful sentence but man that was difficult to read in one breath. There are so many things going on here. So, the first thing I want to talk about is the sensory language going on in this line. So, you've got the

worring, the chaotic clatter, the high-pitched twittering, lots of different sounds and movement all happening, as she says, all happening at once that create the feeling of this being incredibly high energy movement. You also have that tricolon of wings and feet and talons. And again, the effect of making that tricolon also a synthetic list is that overwhelming feeling of all the different parts of the bird coming out all at once. And it almost feels like a steady progression as well because the wings are higher on the bird and then it's its feet and then it's its talons. And then also I think the fact that it specifies feet and talons is important because of course they're they're part of the same appendage on a

hawk. And so part of why I think the talons are specifically referenced as well is because they for bird of prey in particular really heavily connote the strength and potential violence of that bird. You've then got the repetition and the italics in enormous enormous hawk. Now of course the word enormous very self-explanatory. It means it's really really big. But when that is combined by repeating the word and the italics, that's when we get her feelings of not just informing us this is a big bird, but her feeling of awe at the size of this bird. Now, it's at this point I want to really make sure we understand what I mean when I'm saying the word awe. Collins dictionary defines awe as the feeling of respect and amazement

that you have when you are faced with something wonderful and often rather frightening. If you are aed by someone or something, they make you feel respectful and amazed, though often rather frightened. So, it's this perfect word for describing that mix of emotion she's going through because on the one hand, she's amazed at the wonder of this bird, but she's also a little bit frightened of it too, of the power and violence that it has within it. more things that convey this sort of overwhelming sudden awe that she's feeling is the pathetic fallacy and the metaphor in a great flood of sunlight drenches us and everything is brilliance and fury. So, first of all, the great flood of sunlight drenching them.

Remember how I said with the daylight irrigating the box? That was like the growing power. Well, that image has taken a step further now. It's gone from daylight to sunlight drenching rather than irrigating. Notice the water imagery continuing. Irrigate versus drench. It's an escalation of our bird's power. And again, it's like it's affecting the atmosphere of everything. That pathetic fallacy of it's the entire room with our sunshine. I know a classic is for sunshine representing joy. And there is perhaps an element of joy and happiness to it because she is finally getting her hawk and she's finally getting that release of seeing her hawk. But I think actually it's more about the sunlight being beauty and strength and

power as the sun is. And when you have with that second part, everything is brilliance and fury. That slightly hyperbolic language there. You've got a juxiposition between brilliance and fury. I mean that is essentially awe, isn't it? That's that's what the two mixed parts of awe are. the fury, so the capability for violence and aggression from our bird, but then also the brilliance. Brilliance is a word for something being like incredibly bright, something being magnificent. So, we've got this description of its beauty next to the fear essentially that it creates in her because of the violent power it has. So overall, this whole long synthetic list that really introduces our hawk for the very first time is not

just about showing the transition from her going from anticipation to awe as she's seeing the hawk. It's also about presenting the power of the hawk itself. Um the strength that it has. And that continues as this paragraph keeps going because what we have here is the hawk's wings barred and beating the sharp fingers of her dark tipped primaries cutting the air. Her feathers raised like the scattered quills of a fretful porpentine. There's again violence in that metaphor of her fingers cutting the air. And then in the simile of like a fretful p portine. So something fighting back, something that is designed with defense mechanisms built in. It's all imagery to do with power and aggression. And after that line, we then get some

more of the awe that she's feeling as we have this metaphor. My heart jumps sideways. So obviously the heart is a symbol for her emotions and how she's feelings. So it jumping sideways. What on earth could that possibly mean? There is an element of fear like moving out of the way but also a burst of energy and excitement as well with the dynamic verb of jumping. So it's the or because it's that mix of she's incredibly excited but also afraid, you know, trying to get out of its way at the same time. I know I'm moving like all over your screen over this slide, but you're going to see why now. Because what we have next is a a real combination of crafting going on because we have short sentences and

metaphors and simileies and a semantic field of godlike power and a semantic field of light and wide-ranging imagery that is all about conveying the majesty and awe of the bird. I'm going to break down what I mean by all of that. Starting with defining the word majesty. Majesty is the quality of being beautiful, dignified, and impressive. And it's the word that I think best encapsulates the many different elements to how she is viewing this bird. It is beautiful. It is impressive. It has a dignity about it as well. So it is powerful and majestic. Well, how does she convey that? Starting off with she is a conjuring trick. That comparison to something magical. So obviously with the comparison to a conjuring trick in that

you know you pull a rabbit out of a hat. This is a bird out of a box. But the key connotations behind conjuring trick is something magical, something you never thought possible. All of that is what she feels about this bird. A reptile, of course. Yes. On a simple level, you know, if you think about the way a Goss hawk's claws look, they are reptilian with the little scales all over them. These are the OG dinosaurs. But it's more than that. The connotations behind a reptile are something very powerful. Again, something awesome. And by awesome, I don't mean, oh, wow, awesome. I mean impresses you with its beauty, but also makes you a little bit afraid. A fallen angel. Now, that's an interesting one because on the one hand,

angels cannote majesty, beauty, brilliance, power, godlike power, huge amounts of power. But a fallen angel, there's something more sinister and darker there that links to the images, the fearful image we've had of our hawk. It's not specifically aggression and violence coming through in a fallen angel, but certainly something with a dark sinister power. Now, she is not trying to suggest this hawk is evil or this hawk is the devil, but she is trying to suggest that there is a a kind of darkness to its power at the same time as does the image of a griffin from the pages of an illuminated beasty. Now, an illuminated beastry, that's a book they had in the medieval times that had beautiful drawings in of all different

kinds of creatures. A griffin is a mythical creature. This creature had the body of a lion and the head of an eagle. Both of those animals, eagle and lion, canote massive amount of power. Griffins canote massive power. Power, violence, aggression, strength, all the things I feel like I'm going to keep saying over and over and over again because she keeps reinforcing those same ideas. There is also though from it coming from the pages of an illuminated beasty, there is also a feeling of something again magical in that obviously mythical creatures aren't real. So it feels like something fantastical come to life, something you never thought you'd see. Then because a beasty is from the medieval era, it creates connotations of

perhaps something historic, some that is powerful because it's been there through the ages, that kind of thing. And of course, beauty as well because of that semantic field of light we've had going on with daylight, uh, sunlight, brilliance, and now illuminated things lighting up the beauty that comes from being lit up as well. And the beauty of course of just be series. They were for their time incredibly beautiful and intricate drawings. Something bright and distant. Bright more of that semantic field of light like gold falling through water. So if you think about the way gold looks when it's falling through water, it's that glitter, isn't it? It's the sparkle. It's the shine. So it is part of the semantic field of light.

It's also the continuing image of something rare and special and precious that fits with our griffin and our angel and our conjuring trick of something really different and unique. Also of something being incredibly valuable as well with those connotations of gold there. And also beautiful cuz sparkly gold. Who doesn't love some sparkly gold? The broken marionette of wings, legs, and light splashed feathers is on the one hand a sort of reference to what the bird looks like when it's all tied up in the different parts that keep it sort of tied down while it's in the box. So, I think there is a little bit of a vulnerability to this image, which is important cuz we're going to see more vulnerability in a little bit. And I

think this fits with that because a marionette, you know, it's something that's tied down, it's restricted, it's trapped. That is also an image we're going to see more of later. something that's broken as well, creating more connotations of vulnerability and a little bit of weakness there that hugely contrast the images of strength and power that we've had up to this point. So, it's creating with this one on top of all the others an image overall of huge amounts of beauty and power being restricted and tied down by the whatever material the jesses we are told about that keep this bird in its place. Now, what's really important to understand about the range of those images there, the Griffin, the fallen angel, the

conjuring trick, the broken marionette, is it reflects the really mixed emotions that Helen McDonald is feeling, the awe she's feeling when she looks at this bird because yes, she sees its beauty and its impressiveness. Yes, she feels a little bit of fear at the strength and power behind it. And also, there's a bit of feeling of her care for it, too. you know, a broken marionette, something that needs fixing, something that needs help and and all that kind of thing as well. And when it's also in all those short sentences like that, it's like she's struggling to come up with the perfect image to encapsulate it. And so, the only way is to do it with loads and loads of different images. So, the range

of different short sentences reflects her trying to process her feelings and process her awe about this bird. And it's almost like running through all her different thoughts, all the different things she feels as she looks at it. The imagery though of power starts to shift much more now to images like the broken marionette with the feelings of vulnerability. For example, we're told for one awful long moment she is hanging head downward, wings open like a turkey in a butcher shop, which of course creates her feelings of vulnerability because, you know, turkeys have been killed. You know, they are dead and have been used and are now going to be on someone's roast dinner table. So there is a vulnerability to that of a

connotation of mortality and the control human beings have over animals. And in that moment we are told about how her head is turned the right way up and she is seeing more than she has ever seen before in her whole short life. By the way, it's important to note that what our birdman is doing right now isn't a problem. I I can't say I know anything about falconry, but he's supposed to be doing this. Okay? So, never write in the essay that our bird man is like, you know, mistreating the bird or something and that's why it's a turkey in a butcher shop because he is the butcher. That's not it at all. He is doing what he's supposed to be doing to get the bird out of the box and to, you know, free it and all that kind of stuff. But

what she's trying to do is try to show us how the hawk is feeling right now. The vulnerability and how overwhelmed the hawk is feeling, which in turn shows the empathy and care that she has for this hawk because she is really understanding its struggle with trying to understand everything going on around it all of a sudden. And we get that first of all with the use of the third person pronoun she that we get throughout this section. Now, yes, okay, the bird is a she, and so it's not really that strange to call a bird she. You do that with most animals based on their sex. However, up to this point, it's been called hawk. And so, it's that important shift in the mode of address away from hawk to the third person

pronoun that makes it feel much more personal. And what we are told is that she is seeing more than she has ever seen before in her whole short life. So you've got that juxtaposition between whole of everything and then short and very brief that really reinforces the innocence that she has, the vulnerability of this bird because you know it's it's so young. We then have the metaphor of her world was an avary no larger than a living room. So the metaphor is in it being called her world, right? That's the metaphor that shows how significant everything is. Everything she has understood has been incredibly small. just like a living room. And in addition to that metaphor, up to this point, we've had some really

short sentences. Her world was an Avery no larger than a living room. Then it was a box, but now it is this, and she can see everything. One after the other, lots of short sentences, which is then followed by a sentence I'm going to analyze in a second that is incredibly long. So, it reflects the change from the small of where she's been before to the huge overwhelming nature of where she is now out in the whole world. So the sentences symbolize that shift from the small world she was in before to the large now. And that large is really in our really long sentence. The point source glitter on the waves. A diving korant 100 yards out. Pigment flakes under wax on the lines of parked cars. Far hills and the heather on them and

miles and miles of sky where the sun spreads on dust and water and illeible things moving in it that are white scraps of gulls. So, there's a lot of crafting going on in that line. First of all, the fact that it is a really long list creates that feeling of being overwhelmed, but also the imagery within the list is on the one hand really specific. Pigment flakes under wax, but also really varied. Glitter on the waves, hills, heather, sky, cars, loads of different concrete nouns. So having all those different images listed like that as well as that repetition of miles and miles of sky as well as it being a really long sentence all creates a feeling of being really overwhelmed. And of course what our hawk is overwhelmed

by is her own power. It's her incredible eyesight that this is referring to here and how hawks can see loads of really small details. They're really perceptive for really really long distances. So, in that sense, our hawk is being overwhelmed by her own strength, by her own power. She's not being overwhelmed by our man. He hasn't done anything to her. She's literally being overwhelmed by the act of suddenly being able to see so much all at once. And that's made really clear to us in the last line of this paragraph where we are told everything startling and new stamped on her entirely astonished brain. So, the word choices there are quite interesting. And I also think there's a metaphor in the news stamped as well,

like it's being imprinted on for the very first time. So startling, astonished, both have connotations of being shocked, surprised, overwhelmed. You've also got that pronoun of everything that in an almost hyperbolic way creates that overwhelming feeling of just how much is going on around her. And then you've also got that adverb of entirely as if all the hawk can feel is this overwhelmed shock from trying to process everything going on around them. There's nothing else that they can take in at this point. So this is our presentation of our very first hawk. And there is a lot going on. But the basic gist is it's majestic. It's powerful, but it's also a little bit vulnerable because of its age and its innocence.

That is going to massively contrast the hawk we're going to see later. But more on that in a bit. In this next chunk, we continue being with our first hawk, and we get more of that hint about the connection between the Hawks and Hela McDonald. How this is so much more than just getting a hawk for the first time, and how it links to her grief and all that kind of stuff. We also get the first feelings of joy and disappointment as her joy about the thought of this is her hawk and then also the disappointment right towards the end as she realizes no, it's not her hawk. So, starting off with the link between her life and the Goss hawks, the first thing we get is this presentation of birdman. We really need a better name for him

than birdman. Please comment below if you know the official term for the person who takes care of the birds. Anyway, he is presented as being caring, skilled, control, a nurturer, and almost like a father figure, but more on that one in a second. So perfectly calm, that adverb perfect, obviously the controlled connotations, the skilled connotations of calm, the adjective practiced movement, the dynamic verbs that describe the skill with which he puts the birds away, folding her wings, anchoring her broad, feathered back, gripping her scaled yellow legs. That lexical field of dynamic verbs really showing his skill. Let's get that hood back on. Dialogue showing his care, but also with that adverb toly suggesting at

being very controlled. The word tort. If someone has a tort expression, they look very worried and tense. So, he's clearly caring about the bird and wants it to have what it needs. We're then given a little bit of backstory as to how this hawk would have been cared for. Hatched in an incubator had broken from a frail bluish eggshell. So, of course, the connotations between frail and bluish continue our vulnerability of the bird that we've talked about already. And he fed her scraps of meat held in a pair of tweezers. So, that image of something incredibly skilled and caring and nurturing, waiting patiently, that adverb showing his care again, the lumpen fluffy chick. Oh, that almost sounds cute. But again, both cannote at

that uh weakness and vulnerability of our chick. We're then told because of all of that imagery, all at once, I loved this man and fiercely. He is essentially presented as a contrast to our hawk, this innocent, shocked, overwhelmed bird that doesn't understand what's happening compared to our caring, skilled, nurturing man. And I think that there is room to argue the reason that McDonald loves him is because there are echoes of a father-daughter relationship here. Remember, this hawk is a girl. Father, daughter, father, caring. And of course, Macdonald has just lost her father. We have to phrase this super tentatively, but it does raise the question for the reader of whether McDonald is looking at this relationship

between man and hawk and being reminded of a fatherdaughter relationship that kind of care because that is certainly the way that it is presented like a parent caring for a child and I don't think it's a coincidence either in the way that it's presented as you know the man caring for the female hawk too. So when we're told all at once, I love this man and fiercely what she's loving about him, yes, is the care he has for the hawk, but perhaps also a reminder of that sort of father figure element and how fathers can care for their daughters. She then shifts back to talking about the hawk and she puts the hood on the bird and we are told the hawk has wild eyes the color of sun on white paper and they stared because the

whole world had fallen into them at once. So notice that repeated imagery of the world and it's been changing as well. So it's gone from the world was an aviary to the whole world had fallen into her eyes at once. So that metaphor absolutely has connotations of being overwhelmed of the there being a huge amount at once happening to someone. But also the imagery of the color of the sun on white paper, a very beautiful image. So overall continuing the same ideas we've seen already. Our hawk is still beautiful but also a little bit vulnerable because it is afraid and it's overwhelmed by everything going on. What's also interesting about this bit though is that McDonald's has shifted to become the carer. So we are told that

she grabs the hood and puts it on the bird. So the bird needed something. The bird needed a hood. Without the hood that was what was making it so afraid, so vulnerable. So she is becoming the new carer by putting the hood back on it. Now in that sense there's a question of is that what she's enjoying about this hawk what she's loving about it is it she is loving this opportunity to become the carer the one caring for something that is young and weak and vulner well not weak this bird is really strong. So when we therefore go back to that image of our hawk as being a bit afraid and overwhelmed and she is the ability to help it is what she likes about this hawk. The fact that it kind of reminds her of her in that you know

she needs help. She's going through the grief of having lost her father. And so she is able to actually help this bird by putting the hood on it and caring for it in uh its youth and difficulty that it's going through with trying to process everything. I've just realized by the way I've put that like her in the wrong color. That should be in orange for our link between her life and the Goss hawks. We have more of that presentation of the hawk. I really should have also put that in the top corner. That is definitely an idea we see here too with the thin angular skull of an alien brain fizzing and fusing with terror. Now, obviously that's very explicit on the terror. But what's interesting is the adjective of alien

things being really unfamiliar being combined with the description of fizzing and fusing really high energy. And it's like the terror is overwhelming the brain is what it's essentially saying. And also the thin more connotations there of like vulnerability too. But all of that is happening in between her closing the hood. I drew the braces closed. So she is protecting our bird now against that terror and fear that it is feeling. What happens next though is our disappointment comes in. We check the ring numbers against the form. It was the wrong bird. This was the younger one, the smaller one. This was not my hawk. Oh, multiple things again going on. We've got short sentences. We've got an internal narrative. We've got a

one-word paragraph that all conveying her disappointment. It was the wrong bird. This was the younger one, the smaller one. This was not my hawk. So, it's like short sentences. Again, similar to the short sentences of all those different metaphors. She's just having to process little chunks of information at once. But more significant in showing that disappointment is the O. So the reason it's in italics is because it's supposed to replicate her thought process and create a feeling of the immediacy of her thought process. We saw it before with the one two three also on this slide. All of this is obviously in first person. So it is all essentially an internal narrative. But what's key is that the in the bits and italics, it's

like an immediate thought. Remember how I said this is all in chronological order to recreate us going through it as she does. The active thought process is a part of that as well. And that is what the O is doing because it conotes disappointment. The fact that it's all a one-word paragraph on its own as well heightens that disappointment because it's like everything else stops and all she can feel is her disappointment for a moment. I also think there is a little bit of tension building here as well with this was the younger one, the smaller one. Do you remember how she described this bird? Enormous enormous hawk and this is the [snorts] smaller one. So, there's a little bit of tension being built of, okay, this isn't hers.

Which one is hers? What is this hawk going to be like that is hers? And of course, with the opening of it was the wrong bird, we have that similar image to what I've talked about already with the dialogue back at the beginning of we want to make sure you don't get the wrong bird. That double meaning of wrong. It's wrong in the sense that it's not her bird. Yes. But it's also wrong in the sense that this is not going to be the one she was going to connect with like she thought she was not going to get to have that, you know, caring relationship that she just started to get to have with it, she's not going to get the connection that she initially thought she would with this bird cuz it's not hers. So up to this point with

that link between her life and the gosh hawks, what it seems like is the bird she has the affinity with is this one. And so there's therefore a disappointment that this connection between them is being broken. However, that's actually going to change and what we're going to realize is it's actually this next hawk that she truly has the affinity with. So, as we move on to the end of the text and our presentation of the second hawk, I love the way this hawk is introduced to us. It says, "So, we put her back and opened the other box which was meant to hold the larger older bird. And dear God, it did." So that colloquial language there in the and dear god it did really shows her shock, right? Because with our previous hawk

when she experienced the awe, she ran through all of these different incredible metaphors. There was that, you know, the seconds before battle. There was all of the various different imagery here. It's like my god. It's more of a sense of shock, a much in more intense shock where almost like she doesn't have the words to really say anything about it. So the colloquial language is just brilliant in getting across her shock at how different this bird is. And she then of course explicitly says that everything about this second hawk was different. What's interesting in conveying that that contrasting presentation is of course the contrasting metaphors used to describe them. So while our previous

hawk had really wide ranging metaphors, this one the metaphors have a lot more unity in the connotations between them because you've got uh Victorian melodrama, a sort of mad woman in the attack, which both have connotations of uncontrolled, yes, power, but uncontrolled emotional power. You then have she was smokier and darker and much much bigger and instead of twittering, she wailed. So again, wailed has connotations of a lot of like despair and emotional power, but also that smokier and darker the semantic field of darkness in there that contrasts our semantic field of light with our previous hawk. You've also got more of that onatia with the instead of twittering wailed that juxtaposition

between them and the gouts of sound like a thing in pain. the connotations behind a lot of the different images that we've had here, the melodrama, the madwoman, the whales, they do still have similar connotations of power and violence, but in a significantly less beautiful way, in a much darker, more emotional way. All of that is then followed with more of that internal thoughts of this is my hawk I was telling myself and it was all I could do to breathe. So, there's a lot going on in this chunk. You've got that internal narrative really telling us how she's struggling to accept it's her hawk. As shown in the fact that she repeats it. This is my hawk. This isn't my hawk, but this isn't my hawk. Her

trying to kind of struggle to process her relationship with this hawk and that being repeated. You've also got the change in the actions because just as with the first bird, she puts on the hood of this one, too. I grabbed the hood from the box as before, but as I brought it up to her face, I looked into her eyes and saw something blank and crazy in her stare. Some madness from a distant country. All of that metaphor there, all of that imagery fits with the others we've had of the Victorian melodrama, the mad woman, all of it being about pain and insanity and struggling to deal with things and and emotion. And that of course is different from the way she felt about our last hawk because there isn't that feeling of

empathy anymore with our astonished bird and how it's struggling to process everything. She says, "I didn't recognize her." Like that's a metaphor essentially because obviously she knows this is a bird, but it's she doesn't feel that emotional connection with this bird in the same way as she did with the last one. So, what it seems like is happening so far is that actually what we're being told is that she had an affinity with the first hawk and she doesn't with this one. But in a minute, we're going to see that's not true. And actually, she has the affinity with this hawk. And we're going to see why. We also see with those short sentences like slow panic. I didn't recognize her. This isn't my hawk. That disappointment, that

concern as she's trying to process um and and starting to become really concerned about the fact that well, this technically is her hawk. This is the one. This is the correct ring number. She then takes that disappointment and concern and uses it to try and essentially like get rid of the bird. And we see that concern with the fractured dialogues, lots of ellipses indicating incomplete thoughts and hesitation, lots of interrogatives trying to sort of question her way out of this, trying to find a solution in there. All of that really shows her concern because, you know, she doesn't want the bird. What she then says though, right at the end of that first paragraph there, and on and on, a desperate, crazy barrage of incoherent

appeals, how that word choice echoes our imagery of our bird. Crazy, desperate, lots of emotions, lots of emotional instability. Then look at this second paragraph. Now, for the first time, the focus is shifting onto McDonald herself. We haven't really had up to this point any sense of how she is presented and what she looks like. And now we get that and we are told she is a tall white-faced woman with windrecked hair and exhausted eyes pleading with him on a keyside. Hands held out as if she were in a seaside production of Mada. All of that really echoes the image of a mad woman and the Victorian melodrama. The windrecked hair, exhausted eyes, white-faced woman. classic imagery out of Victorian literature when they're

trying to present women as being crazy. So actually there is a lot of similarity that we can see here between the bird and Helen McDonald. There is a similar semantic field of instability of insanity between both of them. You also have this illusion to Ma. Now the exact plot of Ma isn't the point here. What is the point in this illusion to Ma is that Meda is viewed as a woman who is evil, who is emotionally unstable because of all the various things that she does. So if she is alluding that she is like the Meda character, then that illusion still fits with our semantic field of instability and insanity that we've seen so far. Mida doesn't go crazy or anything like that, but she basically goes from being a loving wife to a

murderous villain. So, you know, not great. And what's also interesting in about the story is that she's like a villain and a victim. So there's this duality to her that this mix of emotions in her mix of presentation in her that is arguably similar to our Hawin to Helen McDonald herself. Not that Helen McDonald is saying she's a villain or she's murderous, but more that there is a darkness and also a vulnerability in her at the very same time. So it all fits together. And what we're essentially seeing in the way that she's presenting herself is her grief. We are seeing that actually she is not doing okay. She is struggling with her grief and we can see how she is emotionally struggling with that in the way that she

looks. When she says to our bird man that there was something behind it. It was very important. That's when we really begin to realize that this is about way more than just getting a hawk. That vague language something behind it that was very important. What is that? Why does she need the other bird? Now in this extract we are not provided the answer to that question but we can infer a decent answer from it from all the various different things that have gone on. We can get a sense of what the answer may be. So again you have to express this idea very tentatively. She could be saying this or could be saying that. And what she could be suggesting is that she wants the other bird because of its youth and vulnerability, giving

her the opportunity to feel like a carer and really making a difference and helping someone with their struggle where she is the one that is sort of in control and is okay and knows what's going on. But at the same time she also wants that bird because it has a power and a majesty about it. A beauty about it that she wants in her life too. On the other hand, this bird is craziness is emotional instability is what she is at the moment. This bird is her. She doesn't want to accept that. She doesn't recognize it. But there is a connection between there is a similarity between them in how she's struggling to process her grief, how she's struggling to deal with her emotion and how this bird is sort of very dramatic and emotionally

unstable as well. And so actually there is an affinity between them. There is a connection between them. She just doesn't in this extract she does not acknowledge that connection. There are obviously a few different questions you could get for this text, but there are two main areas that I would bet they are going to focus on. One is the presentation of the Hawks themselves. The second is the thoughts and feelings of Helen Macdonald. Thankfully, they are also essentially one and the same because you can talk about the thoughts and feelings Helen McDonald has about the Hawks and you can also talk about the way she presents the Hawks and very very similar ideas, [music] similar quotes you'll be able to choose and talk

about too. And an important part of helping you get the more perceptive, insightful argument is make sure you try to acknowledge this deeper idea that this is not just about getting a hawk. It's about much more than that. It's about Helen McDonald's state of mind after her father's death and the similar echoes between her feelings and what she wants out of life and the two different hawks. If you need help with the other Ed XL texts, make sure you have a look at my playlist and I will see you later.