A difficult child
César was described as a “rather fussy child.” His father hated that quality and did his best to make César listen to him. However, the child was a natural rebel. His naivety and gentleness proved to be more effective than stubbornness. In spite of the fact that César wasn’t always sticking to his father’s rules, he did want to be loved by his father. That visit to an ice cream café meant a lot, for that was a rare bonding moment. The problem was that “no sooner had the first particles dissolved” on César’s tongue he felt “physically ill.” He had “never tasted anything so revolting.” His fussiness helped him to master “the art of feigning disgust” when he “didn’t help like eating,” but this “went beyond anything” he had ever tasted. It was more terrible than his “worst exaggerations.” This imagery evokes a feeling of confusion and disgust.
Emotionless
The father and the son “had lapsed into a silence” that managed to swallow even the sound of the boy’s “fitful sobbing.” The father was “a statue, a block of stone.” “Shaken, trembling, tear-sodden, holding the ice cream cone in one hand and the spoon in the other,” César was seized with fear. His face was “twisted in an anxious wince,” he was “paralyzed too.” César was “fastened to a pain” that “towered over” his childhood; his “smallness” and “extreme vulnerability” are contrasted with his father’s anger. This imagery evokes a feeling of fear and uneasiness, for it is as clear as a day that César is terrified of his own father.
Cyanide
César became a victim of “the terrible cyanide contamination” and “the great wave of lethal food poisoning that was sweeping Argentina” was the main reason of it. The air was “thick with fear,” for it “struck when least expected.” “Any foodstuff” could be “contaminated,” even “the most natural.” In César’s case it was “ice cream.” The most terrifying thought was that “even food lovingly prepared at home could be poisoned.” Children were “the most vulnerable,” for they “had no resistance.” A mother could “kill her baby with baby food.” This imagery is supposed to evoke a feeling of panic.
