Question

I held the pages down on the steering wheel and scanned the sheets as the edges flittered in the gusts. There it was in black and white—our short harsh history. Beside each date were the ugly facts of the treatment given to Japanese Canadians. “Seizure and government sale of fishing boats. Suspension of fishing licenses. Relocation camps. Liquidation of property. . . . Deportation. Revocation of nationality.”

–Obasan,
Joy Kogawa

Kogawa wants the reader to feel angry about what happened to Japanese Canadians. Which phrase best contributes to this mood?

“I held the pages down on the steering wheel.”
“I . . . scanned the sheets as the edges flittered in the gusts.”
“There it was in black and white.”
“Seizure and government sale of fishing boats.”

Answer 1

“Seizure and government sale of fishing boats.”

This phrase names a concrete, unjust action by the government (taking and selling people's property), which provokes anger more directly than the neutral descriptive lines.