the things that go bump in the night - TTTC

"Out beyond the wire, the paddies would seem to swirl and sway; the trees would take human form; clumps of grass would glide through the night like sappers."

(p. 199)

here, in the middle of the night, we see a number of things personified. the paddies swirl and sway. the trees take human form (can it get more obvious?). the grass would glide. of course, none of this is really meant to be poetic right here. it's more that it's nighttime, and everything is scarier at night. trees become beings. and everything moves on its own accord. this hypersensitivity is heightened, too, by the fact that O'Brien (with the help of Azar) is exacting his revenge on Jorgenson at this point. even while he's trying to scare Jorgenson, he's being scared himself by the sheer nature of things. how's that for irony? but all of this (which has been previously forshadowed [hah!]) is overcome by the hypersensitivity and personification of everything around.