An Emotion of Great Delight: Chapters 1–4

by Tahereh Mafi
With America still reeling from 9/11, seventeen-year-old Shadi struggles with her emotions, as she's surrounded by hatred for her Muslim community and grief from her family falling apart.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–12, Chapters 13–17, Chapters 18–23
40 words 104 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. stagnant
    not circulating or flowing
    It was a perfect summer day out of place in the fall, the stagnant heat disturbed only by a brief, fragrant breeze I couldn’t source.
  2. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    Static on the walkie-talkie. More voices, garbled.
  3. sparse
    not dense or plentiful
    Up, up a cloven chin and thin lips, nose and sparse lashes, flashes of bright blue eyes.
  4. devoid
    completely wanting or lacking
    I was not devoid of a brain, two eyes, the ability to read the news, a room, this man stripping my face for parts.
  5. gait
    a person's manner of walking
    What was left of him was marching off into the fading light, his boots heavy, his gait uneven; I watched him smile as he murmured into his radio.
  6. flush
    of a surface exactly even with an adjoining one
    I reached under my shirt and tugged free the folded
newspaper from where I’d stashed it in my waistband, flush against my torso, and tucked it under my arm.
  7. whim
    a sudden desire
    There was a newspaper vending machine around the corner from my house, and a few months ago, on a whim, I’d purchased a copy of the New York Times.
  8. dissemination
    the spread of information
    The television offered a glaring, violent dissemination of information on the subject, the kind I could seldom stomach.
  9. peruse
    examine or consider with attention and in detail
    I perused the articles as I walked the single mile, the exercise of mind and body elevating my blood pressure to dangerous heights.
  10. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    Neither did I want to think about looming college applications, the police officer, or the newspaper still clenched in my fist, and yet—
    I stopped, unfurled the paper, smoothed its corners.
  11. prompt
    urge, encourage, or motivate someone to act
    Heady relief nearly prompted me to laugh, the sensation held at bay only by the dull ache in my chest.
  12. deluge
    a heavy rain
    The sky ruptured with a sudden crack and in the intervening second—in the heartbeat before the deluge—I contemplated stillness.
  13. succumb
    give in, as to overwhelming force, influence, or pressure
    The newspaper I lifted over my head endured all of four seconds before succumbing to the wet, and I hastily tucked it away, this time in my bag.
  14. flourish
    a showy gesture
    “Hilarious.”
    “I know, I know, I’m heelareeus,” she said with a flourish of her hand.
  15. unwieldy
    difficult to use or handle because of size or weight
    I waved another goodbye at my mom—who’d just turned on her car—before depositing my unwieldy bag in Shayda’s back seat.
  16. assess
    estimate the nature, quality, ability or significance of
    I held out my hands as she tossed a balled-up sweatshirt in my direction. I caught it, assessed it, held it up to the sky.
  17. impervious
    not admitting of passage or capable of being affected
    I never understood this assumption, this idea that my scarf was somehow impervious to water.
  18. vanity
    feelings of excessive pride
    It was silk, an intentional choice, not just for its weight and texture but for the sake of my vanity. Silk caressed my hair during the day, made it smooth and shiny by the time I got home.
  19. rivulet
    a small stream
    Water ran in rivulets down the sides of my neck, my hair heavy, dripping.
  20. palpable
    capable of being perceived
    The temptation was so palpable I felt a tremble in my spine.
  21. sodden
    wet through and through; thoroughly wet
    I imagined my sodden bones carrying me straight home and my heart stuttered at the thought, happiness threatening.
  22. waver
    pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness
    Cars flew past me, spraying me with dirty water, and I wavered further, shivering in soaked jeans and sopping shoes.
  23. innocuous
    not causing disapproval
    I couldn’t miss class because I’d already missed a day last month, and missing two days would drop my grade, which would hurt my GPA, which would hurt my mother, which would break the single most important rule I’d made in my life, which was to become so innocuous a child as to disappear altogether.
  24. ambivalent
    uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
    I was ambivalent about my father, but my mother, I didn’t want my mother to cry, not for me.
  25. elements
    violent or severe weather
    She would’ve called, checked in, threatened my sister with violence for abandoning me to the elements.
  26. ebb
    fall away or decline
    The crushing waves of grief that once drowned me had begun, slowly, to ebb, but my mother—
  27. sentient
    endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness
    Over a year later my mother still seemed to me not unlike sentient driftwood, bobbing along in the cool, undiluted waters of agony.
  28. mantra
    a commonly repeated word or phrase
    I told myself I was helping, giving her space, becoming one less child to worry about—mantras that helped me ignore the sharp pain that accompanied the success of my disappearing act.
  29. torrent
    a violently fast stream of water or other liquid
    A tree trembled overhead and a stunning, icy torrent of water shot straight down my shirt.
  30. scruple
    an ethical or moral principle that inhibits action
    I couldn’t possibly go to school like this, and yet I would, I would, propelled forward by some greater scruple, some nonsense that gave my life meaning.
  31. idle
    run disconnected
    The taillights came on, white and bright, and the car idled for at least fifteen seconds before making a decision.
  32. quell
    suppress or crush completely
    I couldn’t quell my disappointment.
  33. interlude
    an intervening period or episode
    In the breathless interlude, my curiosity had grown greater than my fear, which now felt perilously close to something like anticipation.
  34. denouement
    the outcome of a complex sequence of events
    This near- denouement was the closest I’d been to excitement since the day I thought my father would die, and bonus: the car looked warm.
  35. squelch
    walk through mud or swampy land
    I squelched the three steps across the sidewalk, adjusted my sopping headscarf, and waved at the dark window of the strange car.
  36. appraise
    estimate the nature, quality, ability or significance of
    I couldn’t make sense of it, couldn't understand how I’d just been appraised and rejected by a murderer.
  37. congeal
    solidify, thicken, or come together
    I shook my head, shook the congealing hypothesis from my mind.
  38. ubiquitous
    being present everywhere at once
    The sky was going gray, and silver Honda Civics were ubiquitous; I couldn’t be sure of anything.
  39. herculean
    extremely difficult; requiring great strength
    And with a single, herculean effort, I pushed myself upright.
  40. steep
    devote fully to
    I decided to stay awhile, steep in my failures. Today had been disappointing on so many levels; I figured I might as well go all in, toss all twenty-four hours in the trash, start over tomorrow.
Created on Fri Feb 23 10:12:44 EST 2024 (updated Sat Feb 24 11:02:18 EST 2024)

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