Edwin's Ashes Literary Devices

In this passage one the main themes were Edwin’s parents. Going into the story there was not much of an explanation of who they were, however as the story progressed a lot about them was revealed. In terms of his mother, the reader learns that she was not present in Edwin’s life, however she was still very important to him. He learns that while he had no idea what had happened to her that, after “...all those years: those birthdays and Christmases when I waited and waited for Jess to return...Albert knew where she was and he said nothing.” (22-24). In learning this you see a wedge beginning to form between Edwin and his father, because his father knew something about his mother, and didn’t tell him about it. He later finds out that his mother …show more content…
Imagery was used in this passage to show the disappointment and anger that Edwin is feeling towards his father for hiding the fact that he knew where Edwin’s mother was. Initially Edwin seems to go through a state of depression. He explains how he feels by describing that, “His brain buzzed, and the only way he could keep control of the information, that assaulted him from all directions was by concentrating as hard as he could on as little as possible” (4-6). Edwin feels as though the information he is faced with is assaulting him, in other words he feels overwhelmed by the events that have transpired. He also describes the frustration he’s feeling towards his father and the sadness he is facing by comparing, “His body the surface of a frozen puddle stepped on by a curious, playful child: it’s beautiful clean surface cracking, fracturing and then destroyed, becoming no more than a shallow muddy pool” (10-12) In this particular section of the passage Edwin is trying to describe how he feels broken. All in all through the use of imagery the author adds a depth to his characters that would have been hard to achieve …show more content…
When Edwin first sees a picture of his mother, “He wanted to protest. ‘Not twins. She had three children. I was her child first. She held me in her arms and told me she loved me and I believed her. I had her first!’ Instead he repeated, ‘Do you know where the picture was taken’” (33-35) This shows internally he wanted to be angry about his mother abandoning him despite her saying she loved him, while externally he tries to maintain a relatively calm attitude. Another thing I observed was that he was very jealous and very selfish about his mother, and that he didn’t seem to like the idea of her having other children because he wanted all of the