The mood that is created by the language in this passage is best described as desperate. The reflections on sinking, waste, and loss create a sense of longing and a troubling atmosphere. The mention of the sinkings in both the literal and metaphorical sense conveys a feeling of despair and helplessness.
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.
"Sinking and Swaddled" from Deadheading and Other Stories © Beth Gilstrap. Published by Red Hen Press, 2021.
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
Which best describes the mood that is created by the language in this passage?
(1 point)
Responses
desperate
desperate
optimistic
optimistic
insecure
insecure
suspenseful
suspenseful
1 answer
1 answer