H Is for Hawk

How does the writer use language and structure to create tension and suspense in ‘’H is for Hawk’’?

In the beginning of ‘H is for Hawk’ the writher (Helen McDonald) uses imagery and light to focus the attention on the hawk ‘daylight irrigating the box’ this implies that the box is being swamped by the light like a dramatic entrance. The writer uses a slow pace up to the unveiling of the Hawk. She uses very short and snappy sentences. Building up tension ‘Concentration. Infinite caution.’ Which focuses on the climax of the paragraph which is the young Hawk being revealed from the box. The writer emblemises the hawk as a majestic beast.  

In the middle of the piece the hawk is seen as a magical beast by the writer ‘she is a conjuring trick’ which is a metaphor and is used to describe the birds magical character. she gets very into the first hawk emotionally and once she realises that it is not her hawk you can feel the drop of her energy indicated by her blunter language. ‘it was the wrong bird… This was not my hawk’. She after being very disappointed yet excited for the second Hawk the other person is very calm implying that he thinks she is looking forward to the next hawk. We can also pick up on her deliberate disappointment which is from a weak ‘oh’ this conveys that she is very  

Towards the end of the passage just premature to the revealing of the second hawk she realises the ‘darker and … bigger… and the sound…’ she uses repetition of conjunctions to show her growing realisation that this bird was different to her than the first bird. It didn’t have the innocence of the other bird which separated it emotionally from the woman and emotionally tightened her to the younger bird. She soon realises that ‘this isn’t my hawk’ which made here desperate and to plea to the man even though it was a taboo and against what she should do.