Helen Macdonald: Biography & "H is for Hawk" Summary

Helen Macdonald: Biography and Background

• Helen Macdonald, born in England in 1970, studied English Literature at Jesus College, Cambridge.
• She worked in falcon conservation and was a Research Fellow at Jesus College from 2004 to 2007.
• Macdonald is an author on the natural world, and her memoir "H is for Hawk" won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in 2014.
• "H is for Hawk" is about Macdonald's grief after her father's death and her attempt to train a goshawk as a way to cope.
• She decides to find some meaning in her life by training a young goshawk, believing it will honor her father's memory.
• The story includes Macdonald's experience alongside that of T.H. White, who wrote about his own struggles to tame a goshawk in "The Goshawk" (1951).

Summary

• In the given extract, Macdonald is picking up a young goshawk from a breeder and is struck by the bird's intense presence.
• She uses expressive language to describe her first encounter with the bird and imagines the hawk's first experience of the outside world.
• A mix-up occurs, and the breeder shows Macdonald a different, larger bird than the one she expected.
• Macdonald insists on keeping the first bird she saw because she does not connect with the larger one.

Analysis: Initial Encounter and Tension

• The extract starts with dialogue, creating an immediate sense of being present with Macdonald and the breeder.
• The breeder's mention of "Article 1Os" forms introduces the theme of tension between freedom and captivity, referencing the paperwork required for the "captive-bred rare bird".
• The first paragraph is intentionally understated, which contrasts with the poetic language used later.
• The paragraph builds tension subtly, as Macdonald describes the flimsy boxes containing the birds.
• A sudden thump from within the box creates a startling moment, emphasized by the italicized word "thump."
• The man's concern about the hood being off the bird signifies potential danger or fear.
• Macdonald's statement "Like us" (referring to the hood) suggests that humans are also the "fearful sights" from which the hawk needs protection.

Literary Devices and Dramatic Imagery

• The paragraph describing the opening of the box (lines 11-31) uses literary devices and dramatic imagery.
• The first ten sentences contain only one main verb, using short, fragmentary sentences to slow down time and create tension.
• Phrases like "Another hinge untied. Concentration. Infinite caution." show a slow rhythm, indicated by repeated sounds.
• The image of "Daylight irrigating the box" is unusual, mixing sun and water imagery to highlight the experience and prepare the reader for unfamiliar language.
• The air turning "syrupy, slow, and flecked with dust" foreshadows an impending battle, adding to the ominous tone.
• A long sentence (lines 13-17) describes the goshawk leaving the box, using confusing writing to reflect Macdonald's and the hawk's shock.
• Alliteration and onomatopoeia ("chaotic clatter," "whirring," "twittering") mimic the sounds of the hawk's release.
• The repetition of "enormous" emphasizes Macdonald's shock at the bird's size.
• The phrase "coincidence of world and deed" refers to the sun appearing at the moment of the hawk's release.
• Water imagery ("flood," "drenches") mirrors the earlier "irrigating," highlighting the overwhelming impact of seeing the hawk.
• The sentence ends with "everything is brilliance and fury," using both light and emotion imagery.

Hawk's Appearance and Macdonald's Reaction

• A sentence lacking a main verb describes the hawk's appearance using alliteration: "The hawk's wings, barred and beating."
• The phrase "sharp fingers of her dark-tipped primaries cutting the air" refers to the hawk's main flight feathers.
• The simile "her feathers raised like the scattered quills of a fretful porpentine" uses another animal to describe the hawk's wings and nervousness.
• Between lines 19 and 23, Macdonald omits verbs, listing images to express what she sees with her heart jumping sideways.
• The hawk is compared to a reptile, a fallen angel (Lucifer), and a griffon from an illuminated bestiary to underline its otherworldly nature.
• The "fallen angel" reference implies the hawk's potential for evil alongside beauty.
• The griffon reference suggests that the goshawk is far beyond other everyday creatures.
• Macdonald uses nature imagery, comparing the hawk to "gold falling through water," but also acknowledges its fragility as "A broken marionette of wings, legs and light-splashed feathers".
• The simile of the hawk being held "like a turkey in a butcher's shop" highlights Macdonald's concern for the bird's vulnerability.

The Hawk's Perspective

• Macdonald imagines the hawk's perspective, contrasting its limited view from the aviary with its newfound freedom to see everything.
• Italics are used to emphasize the hawk's new freedom of vision: "she can see everything".
• She lists small details that the hawk might notice, such as "point source glitter on the waves" and "pigment flakes under wax on the lines of parked cars".
• Macdonald describes the bird's mind like a blank page, using a printing metaphor: "Everything startling and new-stamped on her entirely astonished brain."

The Breeder's Calmness and Macdonald's Empathy

• The narrative shifts back to the past tense, focusing on the man who brought the goshawk.
• The man is "perfectly calm," securing the hawk with practiced movements, described with images of security, anchoring the hawk against his chest and gripping the bird's legs.
• The word "tautly" describes the man's voice, which is an odd image, as it is very visual and usually describes how something looks, not how it sounds; tension can be imagined on his face caused by care.
• Macdonald imagines the hawk's early life, hatched in an incubator and hand-fed by the man, evoking a sense of connection.
• This causes Macdonald to feel sudden love for the man, revealed in the sentence "All at once I loved this man, and fiercely" (line 39-40) showing Macdonald's fragility and empathy.
• The hawk's "wild eyes" are linked to the color of "sun on white paper" to convey their intensity.

The Mistake and Its Impact

• Macdonald uses a short, verbless sentence ("One, two, three") to show the passage of time.
• As she hoods the bird, she imagines its brain "fizzing and fusing with terror," using alliteration and onomatopoeia.
• A shocking discovery is delivered with understatement: "It was the wrong bird. This was the younger one. The smaller one. This was not my hawk."
• This realization is emphasized with a one-word paragraph in italics: "Oh".

The Other Hawk and Macdonald's Desperation

• The larger, older hawk is described as a "madwoman in the attack," a reference to the "madwoman in the attic" from "Jane Eyre."
• This bird is "smokier and darker," its sounds described as "great, awful gouts of sound like a thing in pain."
• The word "gouts" is an unexpected and horrible image, typically associated with blood, that suggests that Macdonald is frightened of the new bird.
• Macdonald uses italics to heighten tension: "This is my hawk," followed by "This isn't my hawk," expressing her realization that she cannot take this more aggressive bird.
• The use of reported speech shows Macdonald's attempts to persuade the man to let her have the younger bird, starting politely but escalating to "a desperate, crazy barrage of incoherent appeals".

Conclusion and Cliffhanger

• The final paragraph hints that Macdonald's appearance of desperation may have swayed the man.
• She describes herself as a "tall, white-faced women with wind-wrecked hair," comparing herself to Medea from Greek theatre, driven mad by grief.
• The ending builds tension, leaving the reader wondering if the man will relent, concluding with a "cliff-hanger" and "a moment of total silence".