Rebirth
Renee describes her first day at school, when she was really noticed first time in her life: her teacher called her by her name, and said that the girl had the beautiful eyes. Renee’s world changed. It filled with colors. She “became aware of the rain falling outside, the windows streaked with water, the smell of damp clothing, the confinement of the hallway, the narrow passageway vibrating with the press of pupils, the shine of the coat racks with their copper hooks where capes made of cheap cloth were hung close together, and the height of the ceiling which, to the eyes of a small child, was like that of the sky.” The author uses this imagery to highlight the importance and brightness of that moment for Renee. She was so amazed and delighted with that fact that the teacher saw the personality in her, that it seemed to her as if it was her second birth.
Western and Japanese
Renee very vividly describes and compares the Western and Japanese mentalities on the example of their walk. “When we Westerners walk, our culture dictates that we must, through the continuity of a movement we envision as smooth and seamless, try to restore what we take to be the very essence of life: efficiency without obstacles, a fluid performance that, being free of interruption, will represent the vital élan thanks to which all will be realized.” She compares the Western walk with walk of cheetah: it is harmonious and smooth; and such movement, as Renee thinks, symbolizes “the deep perfection of life”. Talking about the Japanese, Renee marks the “natural movement with woman’s jerky little steps” which makes the reader to “experience the disquiet that troubles our soul whenever nature is violated in this way, but in fact we are filled with an unfamiliar blissfulness, as if disruption could lead to a sort of ecstasy, and a grain of sand to beauty.” In this movement Renee discovers “the paradigm of Art”. Using such bright speech, Renee makes so vivid an image of these walks, that the reader seems to see it all firsthand, in front of his eyes, feels this western smooth or hears the Japanese steps.
Choir
The method is used in Paloma’s describing of impressions while listening to the choir. It’s a miracle for her. Everything, everybody disappears for her when the choir begins to sing. “Everyday life vanishes into song, you are suddenly overcome with a feeling of brotherhood, of deep solidarity, even love, and it diffuses the ugliness of everyday life into a spirit of perfect communion.” She can’t control herself, she is hardly keeping herself from sobbing. She is full of emotions: “It’s too beautiful, and everyone singing together, this marvelous sharing. I’m no longer myself, I am just one part of a sublime whole, to which the others also belong, and I always wonder at such moments why this cannot be the rule of everyday life, instead of being an exceptional moment, during a choir.” The author doesn’t just want to show Paloma’s admiration with the choir, with the music. Thus he shows her inner intelligence, her no childish sense of Art, of Music, in particular.
The picture
When Renee first visited Kakuro she noticed the picture in his hall. Though it was just a picture, she was so amazed and impressed with it that she couldn’t but started to think over the essence of this picture, then – the essence of Art in general: “Whence comes the sense of wonder we perceive when we encounter certain works of art? Admiration is born with our first gaze and if subsequently we should discover, in the patient obstinacy we apply in flushing out the causes thereof, that all this beauty is the fruit of a virtuosity that can only be detected through close scrutiny of a brush that has been able to tame shadow and light and restore shape and texture, by magnifying them—the transparent jewel of the glass, the tumultuous texture of the shells, the clear velvet of the lemon—this neither dissipates nor explains the mystery of one’s initial dazzled gaze.” Renee “gets to the heart” of the picture so deeply and philosophically, that the reader does not just seems to see it in front of him, but as if he also sees it inside out, from the core, like Renee sees.
