Siberia
One of the book’s two main characters is a young man terrified of service in the Russian military. Drafted into serving his country, his terror is centered upon being sent to some forsaken outpost in Sibera. His thoughts share descriptive imagery which conveys the full impact of his fear. He know Siberia to be “a territory of banishment, giant oubliette of the Tsarist empire before it turns Gulag country. A forbidden perimeter, a silent space, faceless. A black hole.” This imagery produces a distinct emotion dread with its emphasis on darkness, depersonalization, and menace.
Paranoia
The young man is determined to escape from his fate by deserting even before he gets sent to his post. The train is filled with other soldiers, real soldiers, and his paranoia that they have targeted him is intensified using imagery. “His profile burns against the wall of glass, a wound, his Adam’s apple is going to split and crumble, danger grows sharper, these two are gonna kill him, take him down and sit on his chest, spit in his face, drool on his eyelids.” The rising level of terror is viscerally portrayed through word choice such as the burning of his profile and splitting and crumbling of his Adam’s apple. The paranoia grows even within this sentence as his mind quickly leaps from the fear of being killed to the dehumanizing acts of disgust to be acted out by his would-be assassins.
The Future
In a rare moment of calmness, the young man is able to be more contemplative in his assessment of his situation. He has even found reason to allow for optimism about his future to enter into his mind. “No longer is the future like an inert and viscous landscape, a long corridor of dirty snow.” Imagery is very effectively used here to reach into his state of mind in the moment. Aboard the train, his mind is occupied by larger issues of survival, but he is nevertheless applying what he is witnessing in metaphorical terms. His path to the route of his escape—the train—has been marked by the unpromising landscape taking him there. It is only natural, perhaps, that he would see a darker version of his future in that snowfall.
Foreigner Spotting
“Backpack over her shoulder, honey-colored sheepskin coat, faded jeans tucked into leather boots, purple scarf that forms a textile-soft brace around her neck, and she’s tall, brown curly hair cut short.” The descriptive imagery used to describe the woman in this passage may seem ordinary enough to most readers to lack any real significance. This description is actually, in fact, a great lesson to any female from another country who wants to visit Russia and not advertise that they are a foreigner. At one point the young man decides to trace the footsteps of a woman on the platforming front of her. He instantly identifies her as a foreigner through the details outlined in this use of imagery.
