Varjak Paw

“The old place must have been full of light and life in Jalal’s time, generations ago—but now it was full of dust and musty smells. The windows were always closed, the doors locked. There was a garden, but it was surrounded by a high stone wall. Jalal was the last to cross it. In all the years since then, no one had ever left the Contessa’s house.”

Said uses visual imagery, such as “full of light,” and olfactory imagery, such as “musty smells,” to describe the Contessa’s house. The structure’s deterioration mirrors the stagnation Varjak sees in his family since Jalal’s lifetime. This contrast helps the reader understand the protagonist’s longing for adventure and the factors that hinder him from pursuing it. The Contessa’s house, one of the most important settings in the novel, also symbolizes the dangers of complacency. This passage emphasizes The Impact of Heritage on Personal Development by establishing that the Paw family’s legacy contains both greatness and generations of lethargy.

“Creeaak The front door swung open. A blast of wind swirled in, sweeping all the dust into the air. Varjak’s fur stood on end. click CLACK Two shiny black shoes. Each big as a cat. Coming through the door. Heart racing, Varjak bent back his head, to follow the line above the shoes. Up a pair of legs, up some more, he saw huge white hands, huge enough to hold his whole body, strong enough to break his neck.”

Visceral details like “Varjak’s fur stood on end” and “[h]eart racing” convey the protagonist’s shock and fear when he sees the Gentleman for the first time. Said uses spelling and capitalization to further emphasize the onomatopoeia “Creeaak” and “click CLACK.” These sound effects contribute to the scene’s eerie mood. The simile that describes the man’s shoe as “big as a cat” and the observation that his hands are “strong enough to break [Varjak’s] neck” convey the mysterious newcomer’s formidable size and the threat he poses to the