"Daddy later said the tower swayed back and forth in the gale. He and Ben Bederman swore they had to hold on to the countertops while the rolling chairs slid around. Through the observation window, they watched a grey wall of water twenty feet high move up the canal toward town."(97) This description makes the reader feel as if they are also there. I imagine myself completely scared sliding around in a wheeled chair, just watching water rush toward me.
"I sat in the back of Uncle Frank's white convertible going home with Lecia blubbering nonstop in the front bucket seat and him putting his hammy hand on her shoulder every now and then, telling her it was okay, to just cry it out."(99) This description shows the role of each character. Lecia being older gets to ride up front, while Mary rides in the back, and Uncle Frank takes on the father figure role for the time being by trying to calm the kids emotions.
"Later that evening, Daddy was frying up a chicken, and she chased me down over something mean I'd said about Grandma. She was fast even then (in junior high, she would run anchor on the four-forty relay), so I didn't make it a half turn around the yard before she caught me by the back of my collar and yanked me down from behind."(100) This lets you know more about Lecia, like how she was fast and did appreciate Grandma.
"It was hanging in a giant tear right over my face, swinging side to side like a pendulum, when Daddy came slamming out the screen to haul her off me."(101) This is just a great simile describing the spit wad that Lecia had hanging from her mouth.
"The sheriff would unzip the bag's top a little bit, and the daddy would peer in, then shake his head no. Then he'd step back while the sheriff rezipped before going on to the next bag."(103-104) This quote reminds me of watching the news. All the time you see on the news a pile of body bags with people peering into the bags, trying to identify the dead.
"There was a wide blood-colored scar up one shin where one of Lee Gleason's quarter horses had thrown Daddy, then dragged him around the corral till six inches of white shinbone was visible on that leg. "(110) This is a vivid description that explains just some of the hard times the father has been through. It is also interesting, because this lets the readers know of an event that has literally scarred the father for life.
"Once the men figure the water's verging on deep enough, they fan out from each other, unrolling the net while they do it, passing it hand to hand, till it's pretty straight. All told, it might be thirty or forty yards long. Then everybody just walks back to the beach real slow, each fellow hanging on to his hunk of net, which strains out whatever swims in its path."(111) The reader gets a good idea as to how the men go about fishing with this net.
"I'd never seen a shark up close before, and what stuck me was how chinless it was, its mouth drawn low down where its neck should have been. This gave it a deep, snaggle-toothed frown and kept it from looking smart"(111) Instead of just simply saying she saw a hammer-head shark, Mary Karr gets very descriptive to let the reader know her personal feelings toward this animal.
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