#1)
The passage I found most beautiful in this novel is in the rising action of the novel. This is when Patrick Lewis arrived in the city of Toronto. To me this passage was just beautiful because it was so full of rich imagery. The setting in this passage is the Union Station in Toronto. I think that the descriptions of this setting impacted my emotions. As I was reading this passage, the fact that this train station was described as a “palace, its niches and caverns, an intimate city.” It was described as a palace which made me want to be in this position. The setting being in a train station overall impacted my decision to choose this passage because all the imagery combined with the setting wanted me to escape my reality and travel, or journey to a place so beautiful and peaceful, where I can just sit and reminisce. Even though Patrick is now in the city, he ponders back to the time when he was at the small village of Bellrock; his childhood. Michael Ondaatje uses this setting to evoke our sense of nostalgia. The description does not really portray this nostalgia, but in a way all the detailed description was so personal. “The mosquitoes” and “black underwater color of creek” was just like how I remember my childhood in Sweden. To others this might not have stood out as a passage they liked. However, for me, the details such as putting “the smallest pellet of raspberry onto your tongue and [opening] it delicately with your teeth” was such a minor, but a precious memory. To me, even though this setting is a hot summer on a field, while reading this, I could not feel the sun that strong, but could feel a slight breeze for some reason. This soothing feeling could have come from the diction Ondaatje uses such as “smooth pink marble,” “palace,” and “angels.”
“The tides of movement.” This emphasis on movement, or change was poetically introduced. There was some beautiful personification with his name: “he spoke out his name and it struggled up in a hollow echo and was lost in the high air of Union Station.” This was so pleasing to read as Ondaatje wrote in such a poetic way of hinting at the loss of Patrick’s identity.
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Gee Hee, if you ever get a chance to sit in Union Station, you will appreciate Ondaatje's descriptiveness even more. It is a truly majestic building, inspiring in its solidity and its design. The main mezzanine soars up to a vaulted ceiling that is so beautiful. It's interesting that this is Patrick's gateway to Toronto, a city that causes him so much pain and that also becomes such a part of him.
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