This passage from Chinua Achebe's Don't Let Him Die from Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays is author's brief recount of Christopher Okigbo's leave for army and his leave through death. Achebe created the shock combined with deep sadness as we became empathic to the passage. Achebe wasn't niggardly in expressing his emotions and thoughts. In fact, this passage was one of his recounts of two important events related to Christopher. The text started with some …showed first 75 words of 461 total…

…showed last 75 words of 461 total…able to really approach us and let us feel empathy for the narrator, himself. Then on the bases of this, Achebe, through transition in diction and tone, made us really be shocked by Christopher's death. And through this we are also able to come back to the first paragraph and see Achebe's deep sadness and his regret to "probably would have tried" to dissuade Okigbo from joining the army instead of "have tried" to dissuade.