Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Analyse the theme and the idea disclosed in the extract.

2. Define whether the text is more narration or description. What is the author's role in it?

3. Is there any exaggeration in depicting the phenomenon?

4. Define the kind of context. Characterise semantic and structural types of metaphor in the passage. What effect does the metaphoric description produce?

5. Analyse stylistic value of the simile used in the passage. Is the clause "as if they had made it all" in the last sentence also an instance of simile? What is the semantic stylistic essence of this concluding part?

6. Explain whether the conjunction "but" introduces antithesis.

7. What effect is produced by the detached nominative clause "A clam­my and intensely cold mist"!

8. In what tone is the extract written? What words specify it?

Item 3

The summer passed slowly like some torturing thing reluctant to let go. The rains came just in time, for the oily leather leaves were curling with crispness and turning yellow with the septic threat of death. In places the ground had cracked open, exposing millions of swarming insects to the harsh scorch glare of the sun: they ran out and withered in a few hours. It was impossible to have open the windows of the Company office for fear of mos­quitoes and huge gnats pumped up with blood, but this did at least keep down the sickening stench of the river. It had shrunk during the summer to half its size, leaving a mass of grey, stagnant silt to bake and stink in the sun. The Animals instinctively kept away from it.

From David Clarke's The Turtles

Assignments for stylistic analysis

1. Define the style represented by the extract.

2. State the theme and the idea of the text.

3. What is basically presented in the passage - narration or description? Is there any emotional climax in the text?

4. Analyse: a) whether the setting is realistic/ fantastic/ exotic; b) what span of time the extract covers.

5. What is the tone of the extract? Choose three words or phrases which you think convey the unpleasantness of the weather or the landscape. Explain how these words or phrases achieve their effects.

6. Analyse metaphor and explain simile in the excerpt.

7. Is/ are there any image/ images created in the context? Comment on your answer.

Item 4

Their own tea arrived and they prepared to begin. Attempting to break the silence Mr Stone found that he whispered, and the whisper was like gunshot.

And then silence vanished. The door was pushed vigorously open and there entered a very tall man and a very small fair girl. The man was in mountaineering clothes, like one equipped for a Himalayan or at least Alpine expedition. He carried rucksack and ropes; his thick rough trousers were tucked into thick woollen socks, and these disappeared into massive lustreless boots with extraordinarily thick soles. He created, by his masculine entry and the laying down of detachable burdens, as much noise as for two or three. The girl was soft and mute. Her slacks, imperfectly and tremulously filled, suggested only fragility; so did her light-blue silk scarf. The pale colours her clothes, the milky fawn of her raincoat, and the style of her pale tan shoes marked her as a European.

From V. S. Naipaul's Mr Stone and the Knights Companion

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