The worst part of sleeping in a snow cave..

“The worst part of sleeping in a snow cave in Antarctica is not the minus 20 degree windchill or the midnight sun glaring through every crack.  It’s not peeing in a bottle or feeling achingly sore from digging the cave in the first place.  The worst part in crawling out the next morning, stiff and starving, fantasizing about a latte, eggs and pancakes, and prying open a box of rations to find a choice between a baggie of frozen raisins or a baggie of frozen nuts.  I've often opened up pantry at home and groaned at the limited options, but that pales in comparison to the scarcity of food on a remote ice shelf where the nearest grocery store is a nine-hour cargo plane ride away.”

The paragraph was taken from an article called “A Continental Cuisine” in the November edition of Food & Wine.  The paragraph employees a few of the tips from chapter 10 including use of anecdotes, repetition, and descriptive detail.   The paragraph is effectively detailed in its first three sentences to paint a picture of what it is like sleeping in an Antarctic snow cave- something exceedingly few people have ever done.  The author also uses a little repetition with “the worst part...”  and “a baggie of frozen raisins or a baggie of frozen nuts.”  The author could’ve just said “a baggie of frozen nuts or raisins” to express that same thing.  But by reiterating for each that is was just a “baggie” and “frozen” conveys a frustration with the frigid cold and a sadness that her options are between two boring foods of an amount that only fills “baggie.”  The brief anecdote about her pantry at home and the nearest grocery store provides a necessary point-of-view to explain the unique nature of her existence in the snow cave.