I like how this shows how uneducated she is about the Middle East and how she's been so devoted to finding her brother's prayer that this hasn't crossed her mind beforehand.

This is our first look into how Jonah actually died and it opens up a world of possibilities. Before it was fair to assume that he died in combat, but this twists that thought on its head and opens the reader's eyes to other potential causes to Jonah's death.

I love this line because it demonstrates the division of how people view this kind of work.

This was what I was thinking earlier with both of their feelings towards Eva. It's almost as if she is living Jonah's dream for him.

This harsh cut between scenes does an amazing job at demonstrating that he's still thinking about the events of that night and playing the moment through his head while he's somewhere else entirely. It feels like a scene shift out of a movie and it's astounding.

He's so preoccupied with his paranoia that his being late to work isn't even something he focuses on. He's too worried about being followed

This demonstrates his paranoia regarding the note and is a pretty clever way to ensure that someone isn't following him.

Again, he is a simple observer of his surroundings. It seems as though most people don't pay him any mind which makes the note above seem that much more eerie.

He imagines a future with this woman despite having hardly interacted with her. This adds recognition to his loneliness and helps get a better understanding of his character.

This reflects the part above when he states that he watches others without being watched. The woman hardly notes his existence. He's just someone in the background of her own story

This line really sets up an intriguing opening of the story and creates an effective hook that compels the reader to find out why this is the case.

This is interesting because before this moment of the story, the term friend has always been pushed aside when it came to Hideo, but was also never inaccurate. Like Shuhei has been trying to avoid the closeness of that relationship only to have always had it in the first place.

He says this as though everything Hideo has gone through has been easy. While he may have considerable wealth and governmental power, this isn't without hardship.

Everything that he's spent and risked his life for was for nothing. The offenses weren't true and they lost the war. There's no fanfare for the heroes of a lost war that shouldn't have occurred in the first place.

It's strange how this is simply highlighted over. It seems to be in full contrast to the emotions he felt in his adolescence and much more important than everything stated beforehand, but the description of the bowl he dropped previously got much more detail and care

This seems to be another moment similar to above where he struggled to whether to consider Hideo as his friend. This is strange since the past tense form of this narrative makes it seem as though this is an issue that continues to plague Shuhei.

The sexism present throughout this story is perpetuated by the inability for many women to gain an education. It's difficult for people to grow from their current situations if they are not given the opportunity to learn.

It seems as though Coco and Mimi are actively trying to protect Jade from the worries of what could happen to them whilst they were out.

This shows how uninhabitable this place is. Even the local wildlife are perishing in these conditions to the point where Jade has to be actively aware of stepping on their corpses.

This helps explain how they're making so much more money than everyone else and why it may be a good idea to stay away from the police. Additionally, this shows why them living so close to the city is better for them.

This immediately places a literal barrier demonstrating the classist nature of the society.

This demonstrates how she sees and feels about herself. This also shows regrets she has and how she blames herself for things, most notably with Joe. When it states that her new job made her feel powerful in the next section, we also learn that her boss was Joe, who we already know was a problem area in her life that BRB hasn't recovered from, and thus demonstrates her regrets after her sense of power.

This shows that, based off what BRB remembers, he was either not too interested in her in the first place or was trying to be respectful to her. It seems as though it's the latter, however, due to how they still interact with each other the next day.

Shows that BRB knew that there wasn't a potential future for them together despite how there hasn't been anything about him she disliked, which is interesting because she seems to be generally disgusted by most men. That's not surprising though given how we've seen people like her boss treat her.

This is a great system to get into for situations like this or really any situation where something could go wrong. Because of this, it hints that it may be something that saves them at the conclusion

This greatly foreshadows BRB's worries of sexual assault and hints at her experiences with those events in the past

This shows that the narrator has trauma from when their father hit Dee.

The author gives moments of foreshadowing through these moments of shifting perspective. This really helps give the reader something to look forward to.

Shows that the narrator's mother was worried about the influences that they would obtain while they were gone, implying that she's worried that they'll pick up their father's habits and/or mannerisms.

Shows that there was either a bad breakup or they were in a bad place. The fact that Pops never came back hints towards the former, but that's also disproven by the fact that they were able to occasionally visit their father.

This story did a great job at demonstrating trauma and how it can continue to affect a person throughout their lives. It was great to see this represented in writing like this.