How does Geraldine McCaughrean use language and structure in this passage

to portray Miao Jies emotions?

In this passage, McCaughrean portrays Miao Jie as afraid. When Miao Jie has finished
visiting Kublai Khan and the roustabouts ask if they should set up the circus McCaughrean
writes, The Miao did not answer at once. He looked unnerved, afraid. Haoyou wondered if
he might be ill: so pale, so listless, mesmerized. It seems he began. It seems too he
said. This suggests that the great Miao has gone into a mystical trance and while he is like
that he suddenly realises something that terrifies him. With the listing of the descriptive
words, it creates a ghostly image of Miao Jie making the reader wonder what caused him to
show this unusual side of himself. McCaughrean uses the word mesmerized to emphasise
how Miao Jies usual appearance is actually hiding another mysterious one. With the use of
ellipses, colons, repetition and incomplete sentences Geraldine McCaughrean helps to
showcase the depth and seriousness of Miaos thinking process. The colon shows that the
words after it would help the reader to create a much deeper understanding of Miaos
emotions and to make them feel that they are actually in the novel experiencing the
diversity of the atmospheres which are created. The ellipsis shows that Miao mind is
crowded and trying to make sense of the new information it had just retained, creating an
incomplete sentence which is repeated twice making the reader understand that it is
important to Miaos current situation.

Geraldine McCaughrean portrays Miao Jie as surprised. After Miao Jie is shown and
being explained to that the new design of Kublai Khans Buddhist temple, for the park of
Dadu, is based on the Chinese principles of feng shui, this is demonstrated in the text when
McCaughrean writes, Chinese, said the Miao. Chinese architects. Chinese artists. This
suggests that Miao Jie is shocked that Kublai Khan is following Chinese principles and using
Chinese workers to help design the temple even though Kublai Khan is Mongolian. This may
be because Miao must know that buildings can change people and usually when a country is
being controlled by another, all of their culture is being driven out them by the invading
country, but Kublai Khan is not trying to do that. This makes the reader feel glad because
they realise that Kublai Khan is a very reasonable ruler and seems to encourage Chinese
culture and teachings. The simple word Chinese is used to emphasise to show how
important it is to Miao Jie. The short sentences show that Miaos mind cannot believe what
is happening and it is contradicting other things that he might have thought about Kublai
Khan. This also goes against the readers and Haoyous current image of Miao Jie, not
sturdy, strong and above all things, but weak, destructible and inferior.