Question

She thumbed through her pile of papers as we drove down the Mayor Magrath Highway and onto Highway 3. Occasionally she would hold up a paper and shake it excitedly in front of me as if she expected me to drive and read at the same time.

“Now look at this one,” she said. “Here’s a man who was looking for the source of the problem in the use of language. You know those prisons they sent us to? The government called them ‘Interior Housing Projects’!”

–Obasan,
Joy Kogawa

What mood does the phrase "Interior Housing Projects” create?

sad and gloomy
careful and patient
angry and frustrated
rushed and energetic

Answer 1

angry and frustrated

The phrase is a euphemism that minimizes and disguises the reality of imprisonment, which provokes indignation and frustration in the speaker.