Summary Of Pulse By Josephine Birdsell

Pulse by Josephine Birdsell utilizes imagery to illustrate culture within the LGBT community by describing theme, characters, setting, and mood while providing foreshadowing throughout the narrative.
Through description, the author indicates the nature of LGBT+ culture and its various aspects, contrastingly peaceful in the love it represents and fearful in light of the recent Pulse shooting. Details about the, “bitter black coffee [the narrator had] just enjoyed twist[ing] and churn[ing] in [her] stomach,” after receiving news of the Pulse shooting at an LGBT nightclub provides the audience with insight into the narrator’s grief and fear through the usage of terms such as “bitter,” “twisting,” and “churning.” However, descriptions of the

narrator’s girlfriend contrast the distraught the narrator feels surrounding the shooting with a childlike joy as, “[the narrator’s] guilts, and grievances surrounding the Pulse shooting faded into oblivion … replaced … with an idyllic, dumbstruck cheer and a dopey smile.” By using terms and phrases such as “faded into oblivion,” “idyllic,” “dumbstruck cheer,” and “dopey smile,” the author displays the ebullient state of her relationship. Accounts of the author’s infatuation with her girlfriend provide the reader with an alternative view of the LGBT community, one that is idyllically peaceful rather than inherently fearful. Such a contrast highlights the theme of the passage; the LGBT+ community contains both loving aspects in relationships and fearful elements in light of recent hate crimes.
Description throughout Pulse illustrates characters by indicating their role to the development of the narrator’s view on LGBT+ culture. For example, the author describes as a young man appears, “out of the shadows that loomed upon [the narrator and her girlfriend].” The usage of terms such as “shadows,” and “loomed,” characterize the young man as dark, mysterious, and potentially dangerous, further amplifying the impending peril the narrator senses. However, the characterization of the young man shifts as the man apologizes for startling the narrator, “‘reassur[ing] sympathetically.” The man’s sympathetic tone of voice articulates his consideration of the couple’s fears, re-characterizing him as a considerate ally, rather than a dangerous man. Such a change in the young man’s description indicates the author’s conflicting views of the LGBT+ community, showing the fear the couple felt as well as the overall acceptance within the community.
Setting is described throughout the narrative in relation to its effect on the author’s interaction with the LGBT+ community.

The author illustrates the “dim, rundown apartment complex,” she walks in, hand and hand with her girlfriend. Using the terms “dim,” and “rundown” portrays the apartment complex as an unsafe, unclean environment; such an environment augments the violence the author anticipates. Continuing to develop a perilous backdrop for the narrative, the author describes the night sky “as the perfect glow that surrounded [them] moments before faded into dark blues and blacks, silently watching.” Descriptions of the dark, watching sky expand upon the eerie setting of the apartment complex by using personification to give the sky a looming, ominous quality. Such a foreboding sky, as well as the dingy apartment complex portrayed by the author, amplify the narrator’s fear of violence due to her sexuality and drive her terror throughout the climax of the

narrative.
Descriptions all through Pulse establish shifting moods presented in the narrative, further expanding upon the culture of the LGBT+ community.

While walking downtown with her girlfriend, the author describes as, “[her] heart began to skip every other beat, pounding, pounding, pounding … [as she stood] paralyzed like a frightened, little jackrabbit.” Repetition of the word “pounding” in the text develops a fast pace, indicating the urgency and panic felt by the author; terms such as paralyzed are utilized to emphasize the urgent, panicked mood. However, sanguine moods still persist throughout the narrative. For example, in the opening paragraph the author describes how she, “watch[ed] the golden dots of morning light glide across [her] ceiling, [and she] melted into a feeling of peace specific to the freedom of early summer.” Terms such as “golden,” “glide,” “peace,” and “early summer” help the reader detect a placid mood in the text, directing the reader towards the state of contentment the author feels surrounding her relationship. Mood differentiations in the text, from the urgency of the narrator’s walk downtown to the tranquil peace of the narrator’s relationship, indicate the contrasting aspects of the LGBT+ community, both in terms of the impending fear of violence, and the love that is the

community.
Imagery throughout the narrative describes events in order to provide foreshadowing, especially surrounding the Pulse shooting. Descriptions of the narrator’s “grief [that] was guilt-drenched,” as well as the, “blinding, scarlet letters,” on the television express the importance of the Pulse shooting; harsh terms such as “blinding,” “scarlet,” and “guilt-drenched” are utilized, allowing the details of the shooting to stick out in the narrative. Later in the text the author describes, “iridescent, blood-red letters [that] flashed vigorously in [her] mind.” Such description of the red flashing letters calls on the audience's previous knowledge of the blinding, red letters of the Pulse broadcast. Given two separate descriptions of the red letters, the audience can infer that the following text (after the author’s description of flashing letters in her mind) will relate back to the Pulse shooting. Vice versa, the harsh language used to describe the Pulse shooting indicates to the audience that the event will be of importance later in the passage. Foreshadowing throughout the passage describes the constant fear of homophobia the narrator feels, especially in regards to the Pulse shooting.
Overall, Pulse by Josephine Birdsell utilizes imagery to illustrate culture within the LGBT+ community by describing the setting, mood, theme, and characters and providing foreshadowing for the audience.