Many things generate emotions within us everyday. Whether it is music, a conversation with someone, a movie, or something we read in the newspaper or in a novel. The manipulation of language by the author, the writing style, and how relatable the characters are, are some of the means by which emotions in or hearts are stirred when we read literature. Here we will examine two passages- John Berger's To the Wedding (198-200) and Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter (140)- and the manner in which they generate emotion through the above mentioned means. Each passage is quite different and although at first Ondaatje's work seems to fail in arousing emotion, both authors succeed in penning wonderfully powerful and heartfelt passages.
To this writer, Berger's Ninon is much easier to relate to than Bolden from Ondaatje's novel. Ninon is only twenty-five years old and dreams every girl's dream: to love and be loved, to bear children, and live a happy life. Even though love has been fulfilled through Gino, her life will be painful and cut short: "I am going to die" (198). Imagine the devastation in knowing only a quarter of one's life can be lived out. Because of her illness, Ninon is also robbed of the joys of motherhood. Although she imagines pushing a stroller carrying her baby, she knows it will never be (198). Even though Ninon is a young woman, people from all walks of life can relate to her. Older women may already know the joys of a happy marriage and family, and couldn't imagine life missing these components. Younger women can feel the unbelievable losses as they imagine a life empty of these joys. Men feel the same happiness in a successful marriage and enjoy fatherhood as much as women desire motherhood. Losing such privileges would leave a painfully empty void in any man's life and so Ninon is a character that is very real to both sexes of all ages. Bolden is a character who is harder to relate to.