A fine morning
When Arnold and Eugene left the house, the sky was still “faintly gray”. The mountains “behind the farm made the sun climb a long way to show itself”. “Several miles to the south, where the range opened up” hung “an orange mist, but the valley in which the farm lay was still cold and colorless”. Then they passed “between the barn and the row of chicken houses” and went to the lake. “A fluky morning wind” ran among “the shocks of wheat that covered the slope”. This imagery creates a feeling of serenity, for a description of still nature is always relaxing to look at.
Waiting
Uncle Andy “went off to get the sheriff” while “Arnold and his father waited on a bench in a corridor”. The boy “felt his father watching him” and he “lifted his eyes with painful casualness to the announcement on the opposite wall, of the Corinth Country Annual Rodeo” and then “to the clock with its loudly clucking pendulum”. Arnold “shifted on the bench, his only feeling a small one of compunction imposed by his father’s eyes”. This imagery creates an uneasy feeling, for Arnold doesn’t know what awaits him and his father’s steady gaze is unnerving.
Shocked
Arnold decided not to go to his room after the dinner and stay with the rest. He did it “to avoid being conspicuous by his absence”. According to him, if he stayed, “as he always stayed and listened when visitors came”, “they would see that he was only Arnold and not the person the sheriff thought he was”. The boy sat “with his arms crossed and his hands tucked into his armpits and did not lift his eyes”. This imagery shows how insecure Arnold is. His parents forget that he is just a boy and needs their reassurance that this tragedy is not entirely his fault.
