Power Of Youth Comments

These are images of pain which point to psychic distress. The first three are especially vivid, with the startling physical sensation of a face hiding thorns and the water rising. You don't describe the effect of these things because the real effect is on the psyche of the speaker, a man confused by these events. His apparent strength to endure them he denies, which just deepens his confusion. As a reader, I cannot predict what will happened next: I'm just as trapped and confused as the speaker is. Could that stem from both of us being male?