Brown makes the language barriers that separate the characters visual by having Riel drop the letter "h" in his dialogue (e.g. "over t'e last several days") and by putting French-language dialogue in ⟨chevron brackets⟩ and Cree language dialogue in ⟨⟨double-chevrons⟩⟩. He shows Riel, who was an educated and sophisticated speaker of French, struggling with English. These touches emphasize that English was not yet a dominant language in the regions in which the story unfolds. Brown uses consistent semantics in his speech balloons; the size and weight of the dialogue varies according to speech patterns, and sound effects vary according to how close they are to the reader.