Explosions
The explosion at the beginning of the text is described in incredible, sensory detail. The narrator describes the explosion itself as "a hissing sound, maybe, like tearing fabric." He then describes the chaos that ensues: "the sky collapses, and the street, fraught with the fervor of the multitude a moment ago, turns upside down." This action is shown to impact the lives of so many people, as the narrator describes the disorder around him. A child is separated from his mother, and a nearby man is injured as his "guts are exposed to the air." The scene is incredibly confused and disorientated, as the narrator notices his own fatal injury and begins to dream about his mother and being a child again.
Mothers
The narrator in the opening scene describes a mother emerging from the smoke, trying to find her child. He likens her to his own mother, saying that: "For a moment, because of her milk-white vale and her tormented look, I take her for the Virgin. My mother was always like this, radiant and sad at the same time, like a candle." Here, the author uses incredible imagery to give us a sense of what the narrator's mother is like, describing her as being almost ethereal. He later describes how "when she placed her hand on my burning forehead, she took away all my fever and all my cares," which again depicts her as being almost magical. When the narrator is almost dying, his mother symbolizes a feeling of comfort and consolation.
Injury
Jaafari is a doctor, meaning he witnesses terrible injuries following the terrorist attack at the beginning of the text. The narrator in the opening scenes of the text describes how one man's "guts are exposed to the air and his blood is streaming toward the crater in the street." The narrator also describes his own injuries, saying that: "Against my side, grotesque and horrible, my leg is lying, still connected to my thigh by a thin ribbon of flesh."
