How Does David Arnold Use Direct Characterization Of Mim In Mosquitoland

In the novel Mosquitoland, by David Arnold, Mim, the protagonist, overcomes many challenges. One challenge Mim must overcome is escaping from Poncho Man, a stalker who attacks girls. While in a bathroom, Poncho Man approaches Mim and becomes sexual with her. He declares, “ Nothing will happen. Nothing you don’t want” (83). Poncho Man says he will not harm her because he wants Mim to stay calm so he can intrude upon her easier. However, part of the challenge for Mim is to escape from his craving for her. After she is able to escape Poncho Man, Mim is not able to report him to the police. Not reporting Poncho Man leads to another girl seizing abuse from Poncho Man; she reports him to the police. Mim feels grim that she can not report …show more content…
I selected to write about the challenge Mim has to overcome when she confronts Poncho Man. Then I created a small outline of bullet points that outlined what I wanted to include. The bullet points helped me emphasize certain points on how Poncho Man’s attack on her will affect her. When considering what writing conventions I should use, a semicolon helped highlight the other girl being able to report Poncho Man. A semicolon helps connect the two related sentences and clears confusion about two sentences being related. Making the reaction of the other girl more clear helps the reader obtain information about what Mim will most likely do in the future. During the piece, I used challenging vocabulary to make certain areas of the text more serious. Including difficult vocabulary words makes the reader focus on finding the importance of the section. When describing how Poncho Man feels towards her, I used striking words such as attack and craving to emphasize the tone of the passage. I also included the word grim to pinpoint the reader's attention on how Mim feels about not reporting Poncho Man. All of these different strategies helped improve my