Question

Sinking and Swaddled
by Beth Gilstrap

She swore she felt the earth drop—like a hitch in an elevator—several miles from her mother’s house. She thought of all those bedlinens agitated, curled, heaped on top of her mother, sunk along with everything else, beams, roof tiles, the acrylic nails her mom wore, the senselessness of waste. Her father had sunk, too. Years ago, in a prefab home out on the lake. One day the lake rose a mite and the ground dove a mite and from what her mother said, her father was better off down there, probably still passed out on his leather couch. Ona had been swaddled and maneuvered into the bow of a rowboat and, as legend tells, slept through the whole affair. Perhaps it was this swaddling she longed for more than anything with all this terrible sinking going on. Which best describes the mood that is created by the language in this passage?

(1 point)
Responses

suspenseful
suspenseful

optimistic
optimistic

insecure
insecure

desperate

Answer 1

desperate

The imagery of things and people “sunk,” “senselessness of waste,” and longing for swaddling amid “terrible sinking” creates a mood of despair and helplessness.