Question

By early afternoon, it is 105 degrees. Enrique’s palms burn when he holds on to the hopper. He risks riding no-hands. Finally, he strips off his shirt and sits on it. The locomotive blows warm diesel smoke. People burn trash by the rails, sending up more heat and a searing stench. Many migrants have had their caps stolen, so they wrap their heads in T-shirts. They gaze enviously at villagers cooling themselves in streams and washing off after a day of fieldwork and at others who doze in hammocks slung in shady spots near adobe and cinder-block homes. The train cars sway from side to side, up and down, like bobbing ice cubes.

—Enrique’s Journey,

Sonia Nazario

Which narrative technique does the author include in this passage?

How does this technique support the author’s purpose?

Answer 1

The passage uses vivid sensory imagery (sight, touch, smell, temperature) and figurative language (a simile: “like bobbing ice cubes”), plus juxtaposition (migrants suffering vs. villagers cooling off).

This technique immerses the reader in Enrique’s experience—you can feel the burning palms, smell diesel and burning trash, see people wrapping their heads—so it provokes empathy and makes the migrants’ hardship immediate and tangible. The contrast with villagers relaxing sharpens the sense of deprivation and danger, supporting the author’s purpose of revealing and condemning the brutal conditions migrants endure.