The opening statement
The opening statement shows readers that Dr. Ransom lives in isolation and prefers to do his things away from the rest of society. For instance, he lives in a boathouse alone. The author writes, “At noon, when Dr. Charles Ransom moored his houseboat in the entrance to the river, he saw Quilter, the idiot son of the old woman who lived in the ramshackle barge outside the yacht basin, standing on a spur of exposed rock on the opposite bank and smiling at the dead birds floating in the water below his feet.” This description also paints a picture of the surrounding water body, the rocks, and the dead birds on the water's surface, enabling readers to see the unfolding events.
The sound of a siren
The author depicts the sense of hearing when he writes about the hooting of the siren. The author writes, “A siren hooted warningly. A river steamer with a single high funnel, white awnings flared over other rows of empty seats, approached the central passage between the main pylons of the bridge.” The imagery is significant because it shows the diminishing water levels making the steamer notify people of the impending danger. Consequently, as much as the siren hooting depicts a sense of hearing, it symbolizes the impending danger.
Sight
The description of the dead fish and the low water level depicts the sense of sight. The author writes, “Below the bridge, in the shadow of the pylons, the trailer families at around a huge garbage fire, their faces blazing like voodoo cultists in the serpentine flames. Down on the water, the solitary figure of Quilter watched them from his coracle, leaning on his pole among the dead fish like a water-borne shepherd's boy resting with his sleeping flock." Quilter's frustrations and the images of the dead fish signify the situation of the drought that is becoming worse every day. People must live next to water bodies to survive. Nevertheless, the water is also disappearing, making it hard for some people to survive.
