Question

Identify Uchida's purpose for including the details in each of the following passages

From "Desert Exile"
1) "It had rained the day before and the hundreds of people who had trampled on the track had turned it into a miserable mass of slippery mud."
2) "I wrote to my non-Japanese friends in Berkeley, shamelessly asking them to send us food, and they obliged with large cartons of cookies, nut, dried fruit, and jams."
3) "The wonderful news had come like an unexpected gift, but even was as we hugged each other in joy, we didn't quite dare believe it until we actually saw him..."

Answer 1

1) Uchida's purpose for including the detail of the slippery mud is to help evoke a sense of the difficult conditions the people experienced in the camp.

2) Uchida's purpose for including the detail about receiving aid from friends is to emphasize the kindness of strangers and the power of generosity in difficult times.

3) Uchida's purpose for including the detail about not daring to believe the good news until it was seen is to show the depth of the family's emotions and the intensity of the joy that was experienced when the brother was found.