Driver
The narrator's description of the driver during his journey across the desert to the Palace town depicts the changing scenery. The narrator says, "Along the way, we cycled through buses and drivers, one of whom was an appealing man, brown and burly. His smiling eyes twinkled in the rearview mirror, and he announced each stop with folksy joviality." The imagery is significant because it shows the joyful nature of the driver and his determination to engage his passengers to ensure they are happy and safe throughout the journey.
The Palace
The narrator paints a clear picture of the current state of the Palace using imagery. The narrator says, “The Palace rose monumental from the dusty street. A desert building fallen into despair. The once-white stucco a dirty ivory color, here and there chipped away, exposing the brick beneath.” Through this imagery, readers understand that the narrator had taken many years before visiting the town. Things look very different from what he had expected.
The Grand Project
When the narrator arrives at Juan's place in the Palace, he looks at the project he is supposed to undertake, and his description depicts a sense of sight. The narrator says, "The grand project, which I was to complete after Juan's death, involved a file folder stuffed with scraps of paper, newspaper clippings, photographs, and scribbled notes, along with two massive books whose pages had been mostly blacked out." The imagery is significant because it shows the task ahead for the narrator. The research study is massive, and the narrator will take several days to complete it based on the guidelines he receives from Juan.
Nene's Reflection
In a memory of visiting a man's house near Central Park, nene recalls that the image of his body in the window at night "is almost translucent, its borders and features only hinted at...the city lights and the black-green hole of the park contained within, and spilling out of [him]" (239). In this image, nene describes a simultaneous erosion and proliferation of the self. The image at once asks us to imagine a disappearance as well as an arrival; the borders of his physical form are melting away and the world around him, usually relegated to the outside of his body, seeps into his interior.
