Scene at the restaurant with Farouq, Khalil, and Julius when they begin discussing portrayal in the middle east

Julius’s thoughts where he pretended to an anger that he didn’t have because he felt that the “game” required him to pretend to be an outraged American resonated with me most, not with being the outraged American, but because like him, I wasn’t sure how to feel about the scene. I wasn’t sure whether to be shocked and overly critical of their support of terrorist organizations, or to approach it as a view that although untactful in its expression and unwise in its support, was still comprehensible. In that passage, Cole uses abrupt and terse sentences which serves to reinforce the sense of a volatile mood between the characters as they go back and forth with one another leading to shocking statements being made. The setting is also another aspect of the writing that reinforces or is meant to be seen as even having led to the angry mood in the scene. The loud restaurant scene with alcohol, cigarettes, and loud speech played a significant role in the mood and can be used to explain why Julius seemed unwilling to probe into the deeper meaning and ideas behind their statements and why the two other men seemed unwilling to expand on their ideas.