Emma Levine

Emma Levine employs structure, sentence length, vocabulary, and other literary features to portray a sense of passing time in this excerpt from “A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat,” where the author experiences a donkey race with Karachi locals.
Levine utilizes sentence length to create a sense of passing time. She describes the impending conclusion to the race with a long, descriptive sentence followed by “the race is over,” a four word sentence. The employment of a long sentence followed by a short sentence creates the appearance of time passing, as it abruptly ends the rising energy created by the former in this anti-climax, and makes it clear that the race so vividly described before, ended. It acts as a conclusion to the various descriptive paragraphs it followed, thereby making it seem as time has passed.
Levine further employs sentence structure to create a sense of time passing. In the fifth paragraph, last sentence, she employs short, disjointed, asyndetic phrases when describing the “ men standing on top of their
She described the race as requiring “quick reflexes,” and involving “sharp flicks of the steering wheel.” Later, the racers “picked up speed,” as they “neared the end of the race.” The selection of “quick,” “sharp flicks,” and “speed,” create a sense of time passing, as they all invoke imagery of speed in some form or another, which in turns quickens the pace, and generates the appearance of time passing. Furthermore, the use of “picked up speed,” and “neared the end of the race,” create a sense of stretching time longer, as it seems to delay the inevitable, the end of the race. Additionally, Levine claims to have “waited an eternity” for the race to begin. This hyperbole demonstrates Levine’s long, dull wait, but also creates the illusion of time, as it conjures up associations to long periods, and “eternity” by definition intertwines closely with time in