Essay Questions

What is the import of apportioning the text into subsections?

Deane differentiates the subsections by means of distinctive subtitles and timelines. An example of a subsection is: “ DISAPPEARENCES September 1945.” The organization promotes flow throughout the text. Had Deane exploited an unbroken plot deficient of the subheadings, the plot would have been marred with mix-up. Reading each subsection individually sustains orderliness.

Deconstruct the implication of Bamboozelem’s disappearance.

Bamboozelem exploits enchanting Magical Realism: “From the shadow of the benches, standing against the base of one of the rope-wrapped poles, I watched him in his high boots, top hat, candystripped trousers ballooning over his waist, and a red tailcoat of satin which he flipped up behind him at the applause , so that it seemed he was suddenly on fire, and then, as the black top hat came up again, as though he was suddenly extinguished. He pulled jewels and cards and rings and rabbits out of the air, out of his mouth, pockets, ears. When everything had stopped disappearing, he smiled at us behind his great moustache, swelled his candy-striped belly, tipped his top hat, flicked his coat flame and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and bang that made us jump a foot in the air. But his moustache remained, smiling the wrong way up in mid-air, where he had been.” The vanishings are unquestionably dreamlike to the degree that they persuade Diane that they are material. Bamboozelem maximizes illusions to amuse the audiences through his mystic exploits.