Writing images

By Maia Irvin 

I think that Hannah Beech did a good job interviewing the subjects of The New York Times article about two of the child soldiers from the Myanmar civil war and where they are now. 

One of the biggest things that stood out to me as I read the story was how much imagery Beech incorporated into her writing as she was interviewing different members of this family. Right at the beginning of the story she wrote, "Johnny Htoo lay on a concrete floor. His eyes stared at nothing in particular." Even at the very start of the piece, Beech already had me visualizing what she observed while interviewing Johnny Htoo and his family. 

The article then goes into the history of Htoo and his twin brother and their roles in the war. Beech also does a really good job of incorporating relevant and interesting information and quotes from her sources and subjects she interviewed. 

Throughout the story, she continues to describe her observations of the subjects, especially towards the end. 

"Johnny's cousin soothes him and holds his hands, which shake with tremors. He sleeps when others are awake, curled up like a quotation mark missing its companion." I really like the imagery that Beech puts in here. It allows the reader to not only read the facts and quotes presented in the story but to also feel as if they are the room as well. It offers the reader more insight into the subject that they would not get without Beech's documentation of her observations. 

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