Analysis.

The author of this text is Jerome K. Jerome. He is a popular English writer. The most famous works are Three Men in a Boat, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, Novel Notes and Three Men on the Bummel which belong to the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century. He is famous for his art of story-telling and his humour which is based on misunderstanding. He is good at revealing the weak sides of human nature.

This extract is about three men who decided to cook an Irish stew. They began cooking from peeling the potatoes. They threw another products which they wished to get rid of and mixed all carefully. At the end Montmorency bought fresh caught water-rat. After some discussions these three men decided to try something new and added the rat. Eventually, they were very happy by their cook masterpiece.

By this text the author wanted to tell us that it had better to try something new than to be indifferent and do everything as usual. People ought to develop in this case world progress would go ahead.

Jerome presents his story as 1st-person narration with descriptive passages. This extract may be divided into the following parts. The first one is a description of Sonning. The second is decision of cooking an Irish stew. The third is Montmorency’s contribution to the dinner. The last one is about great success of Irish stew. This text is written with the cheerful, humorous, emotional and optimistic prevailing mod.

The author used in this text a lot of lexical and stylistic devices which helped to create the needful atmosphere. In the description of Sonning Jerome used metaphor: they (roses) were bursting forth in clouds of dainty splendour; simile: it is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar; epithets: veritable picture, quaint rooms, winding passages, splendid opportunity, a slap-up supper, sweet Sonning. The author underlines his own attitude towards the village, he conveys his positive emotions to the reader.

Moreover, Jerome used polysyndeton with help of connectives: with low quaint rooms and latticed windows and awkward stairs and winding passages; with the vegetables and the remains of the cold beef and general odds and ends; all bumps and warts and hollows and so on. He used these enumerations to increase the comic effect.

The author added also asyndeton. It is the sentence which is equal a paragraph in the text. The author described the climax when Montmorency brought a dead water-rat. The author kept the reader in suspense using the sentence where the connectives are deliberately omitted.

In addition, Jerome used hyperbole: the potato-scrapings in which Harris and I stood, half-smothered, could have come off four potatoes. He used a deliberate overstatement to reveal the humour of situation.

Moreover, he also used irony: It’s men such as you the hamper the world’s progress. One’s palate gets so tired of the old hackneyed things; similes: Montmorency evidently wished to present as his contribution to the dinner; a taste like nothing else on earth; gravy was a poem;

All these language means reveal the author’s manner, his style of writing. He renders his feeling and thoughts with epithets, similes, metaphors and so on.

In conclusion, it is worth adding that the author shows us the weak sides of people in such humorous manner.

Analysis.

To sir, with love.

This book was written by E.R. Braithwaite. He was born in 1912 in British Guiana. Eustace Braithwaite is well-known as a novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomatist. During World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot - he would later describe this experience as one where he had felt no discrimination based on his skin colour or ethnicity. After the war, like many other ethnic minorities, he could not find work in his field and eventually took up a job as a schoolteacher in the East End of London. The book To Sir, With Love (1959) was based on his experiences there. The other famous works are A Kind of Homecoming, Paid Servant, A Choice of Straws, Reluctant Neighbours. His numerous writings have dealt with the difficulties of being an educated black man, a black social worker and a black teacher.

Braithwaite continued to write novels and short stories throughout his long international career as an educational consultant and lecturer for UNESCO. He is an academic, a permanent representative to the United Nations for Guyana and a Guyana's ambassador to Venezuela.

This text is about the schoolteacher’s experience. The author described himself. It is a 1st-person narration with descriptive passages. The main character came in the class as a new teacher. He tried to make a good impression on them. But he had difficulty in coping with the class. At the end of the story the class interrupted his lessons by knocking the lid of the desk, began to swear and misbehave. Eventually he was in despair, lost his temper and thought over what to do next sitting in the school library. The final is open in the text. The reader can only guess whether or not he found the approach to the class.

In my opinion, this text can be conventionally divided into the following parts. The first was about the description and advantages of the principal’s pet schemes. The second tells about his acquaintance with the class and beginning of the teaching process. The third was the climax of this extract. Everything lost the control. The pupils deliberately interrupted the lessons and swear on any silly pretext. The last was the denouement of this text. The teacher sat in the library, felling sick at heart and utter disrespect for him.

The main idea and the author’s intention consist in that teaching is a very long and difficult process. And it is up to the teacher to find the way to the pupils. The class behaves such way as it is allowed. There are no books, prescriptions or algorithm of actions how to behave with class. Because it needs an individual approach to each particular one. Something that can be appropriate to the one class can be inadmissible to another.

So, the prevailing mood of the text isn’t cheerful or ironical at all. The actions happen in tense atmosphere. The author keeps the reader’s attention in suspense. He forces the reader to sympathise to the teacher.

To achieve this result the author used a lot of lexical and stylistic devices. Describing the Weekly Review the author used epithet (pet schemes) to underline the director’s positive attitude. Moreover, he added (which director would brook no interference). It shows the reader how importance the Review is. Braithwaite used repetition (in his own words, in his own way) and synonyms (to comment, to criticise, to agree or disagree) to express that this Review is rather objective as a lot of opinions create objectivity. The author emphasised that children were free to express their opinion (no one and nothing was sacred; the child was safe from any form of reprisal).

Moreover, he used direct speech of the principal. There are also phraseological units (to take some pains), antithesis (careful – careless; individual – collective), opposites (mixture of a relief and disappointment). It makes the story more vivid, solid and comprehensive.

Describing the teaching process the author used epithet (a painful procession), simile (he was as transient as his many predecessors), metaphor (he were trying to reach the children through a thick pane of glass). Thus, Braithwaite shows us how hard the process of teaching was. The teacher wanted to be a successful, he tried to interest his pupils and was anxious what impression he made on them.

The author introduced the terms of phases of his relationship with class (the silent treatment, the noisy treatment). It tells about that the teacher was well-educated, seriously attitude to his job and plan his work accordingly.

There are also epithets describing the children (remote, uninterested), metaphor (a conspiracy of indifference), simile (children stared with attention a birdwatcher). It means that the teacher is not indifferent to his pupils, he wants to inveigle them into active interest so he observes them.

The author used the epithet (burning anger) to display the feeling of the teacher that he was going to lose his temper. Phraseological unit (to play right into their hands) was used to end the climax.

At the end of the story a lot of words with negative connotations were used (disrespect; no sense of decency; ugly viciousness; minds were rooting after filth). These words reveal that the narrator in despair. He did all his best to interest his pupils. He was very disappointed that all his efforts didn’t meet the pupils’ respond. And such cliche (to fell sick at heart) improves it.

At the end rhetorical question was used (Why did they behave like that? What was wrong with them?). The author makes the final open and gives opportunity to the reader to suppose what would be further.

From the point of view of syntax the text includes a lot of long and complicated sentences. It tells that the narrator is well-educated person. All these language means reveal the author’s manner, his style of writing. He renders his feeling and thoughts such way and therefore reaches his desired effect.

It is worth saying that this story is autobiographical. It seems to me, it can be a very good book for future teacher. Because such story is rather plausible in our days.

Analysis.

Art for heart’s sake.

The Art for Heart’s sake was written by Reuben Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970). He was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor, was born in San Francisco. Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect way. Rube Goldberg began practicing his art skills at the age of four when he traced illustrations from the humorous book History of the United States.

Among his best works are Is There a Doctor in the House? (1929), Rube Goldberg’s Guide to Europe (1954) and I made My Bed (1960).

Art for Heart’s sake is about the old man Collis P. Ellsworth who has troubles with his health. Doctor Caswell offers him to take up painting, for a chance. In some time Ellsworth painted an awful picture which was no a work of art at all. To bewilderment of the doctor this painting was not only accepted for the Show at the Lathrop Gallery, but took the First Prize. The old man just explained that he had bought this gallery last month.

The idea of this text is everything can be bought for money. Value of art will vanish if everyone foists his god-awful smudge as an eternal work of art.

The text is written as a 3rd person narration with dialogues of the personages. This text can be divided into the following parts. The first is doctor’s suggestion to take up art. The second is Swain’s lessons. The third is about the Trees Dressed in White. The forth is the culminating point of the text. Ellsworth was awarded with the First Prize for his painting. The last one is Ellsworth’s confession. That he had bought the gallery, that’s all.

The prevailing mood of the text is humorous. The author underlines the old man behaves like a child (he replied Nope on the male nurse suggestion many times. He colored the open spaces blue like a child playing with a picture book. He proudly displayed the variegated smears of paint on his heavy silk dressing gown. He requested someone to read his envelope because his eyes were tired from painting. It was done specially to archive strong effect). At the end the author used the effect of defeated expectancy. When the old man confessed that he just bought that gallery.

A lot of lexical and stylistical devices were used in this text. The author managed to depict all his characters with genuine skills. Koppel, doctor Caswell, Swain and Ellsworth were described not direct but through their behaviour, speech and dialogues.

The first character who was introduced to the reader was the male nurse Koppel. He was the helper of doctor Caswell to treat the old man. The author described how hard it was. He used gradation to reveal the male nurse’s despair (He won’t take his pineapple juice. He doesn’t want me to read to him. He hates the radio. He doesn’t like anything!). Koppel couldn’t do a thing with the old man. Despite he tried to prevent him from exhibiting the Trees Dressed in White as the old man could become a laughing-stock.

To the contrary to anxious and uneasy Koppel calm and gentle Doctor Caswell introduced in front of us. He is a professional and thinks a lot about his patients (He had done some constructive thinking since his last visit. Making proposition to the old man he took his stethoscope ready in case the abruptness of the suggestion proved too mush for the patient’s heart. In spite of rude and vigorous Ellsworth’s answers like Rot and Bosh Caswell managed to persuade him to take up art with his professional calm). He understood Ellsworth was no ordinary case. Further unintentionally the old man’s diagnosis was described. The author used zeugma for the irony (All his purchases of recent years had to be liquidated at a great sacrifice both to his health and his pocketbook).

The doctor preferred not to interfere when Ellsworth decided to exhibit his painting at the gallery. Doctor Caswell was the only man who managed with a supreme effort to congratulate the old man on the First Prize while Swain and Koppel uttered a series of inarticulate gurgles. One mistake the doctor made is he thought it safe to allow Ellsworth to visit museums and galleries.

The next personage is Frank Swain. He is 18 years old and a promising student. He has some simile with the doctor. Swain was also patient. The author used such simile (there was a drawing on the table which had a slight resemblance to the vase) to underline the Swain’s reaction (Not bad, sir. It’s a bit lopsided). Swain is professional too. As his visits grew more frequent he brought a box of water-colors and some tubes of oils. He was no indifferent to the Ellsworth and worried about the picture Trees Dressed in White. He was forced to sneak into the Gallery and see the picture his own eyes.

At least the most inconsistent personage is Ellsworth. As it was mentioned before he behaved like a child. The author used many slang words (rot, bosh, by gum, poppycock) to display that the old man’s attitude to the Koppel, Swain and Doctor, to emphasize such trait of the character as foolishness, confidence, independence. Originally the old man was not sure to take up art. He looked appraisingly at Swain and drew the scrawls expecting the Swain’s critic (the wrinkles deepened at the corners of the old man’s eyes as he asked elfishly what he thought of it). In some time he asked Swain to come three times a week. It tells about his progress in painting. The author used personification (I want to ask you something before old pineapple juice comes back). It reveals the old man’s attitude to the male nurse. Then represented speech of the old man was used (How were the galleries run? Who selected the canvases for the exhibition?). Ellsworth displayed his insatiable curiosity about the galleries but in fact being a person who couldn’t help from buying anything he formed an artful plan in his brain.

Ellsworth executed the painting. The author used epithets (a god-awful smudge; a loud, raucous splash on the wall) and simile (which resembled a gob of salad dressing thrown violently up against the side of a house) to give a real appraisal of the painting and show the absurd accepting this picture to the gallery. The author used epithet (a lifetime dream of every mature artist was a Lathrop prize) and inversion (upon this distinguished group Ellsworth was going to foist his painting) to emphasize the importance of this exhibition, its scale and prestigious.

Ellsworth organized everything before. This fact that Koppel, Swain and the doctor were in the room when the envelope was brought was not a chance. He anticipated this result (He was unusually cheerful during the exhibition). He proved them that art is nothing and everything can be bought for money. All treatment and the good work, that the doctor has accomplished, were spoilt. Ellsworth managed to wind everybody round his finger. Why it has happened?

From the point of view of syntax the text includes a lot of short and elliptical sentences (Not bad). All these language means reveal the author’s manner, his style of writing. He renders his feeling and thoughts such way and therefore reaches his desired effect.

It is worth adding that the author was a great cartoonist. It impacts on his style of writing. He paid attention on details and traits of characters.

Analysis.

A Small, Good Thing.

This Extract was written by Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988). He was an American short story writer and poet. At the age of 20 he supported his family by working as a janitor, sawmill laborer, delivery man, and library assistant. During their marriage, Maryann worked as a waitress, salesperson, administrative assistant, and high school English teacher.

Carver's career was dedicated to short stories and poetry. He described himself as "inclined toward brevity and intensity" and "hooked on writing short stories" Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story [or poem] can be written and read in one sitting”.

Carver's writing style and themes are often identified with Ernest Hemingway and Anton Chekhov.

Minimalism is generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work.

This Extract was taken from one of the most famous short story A Small Good Thing. It tells about a boy who was knocked down by a car. The boy was in deep sleep during three days and then died. Doctors who treated him did all their best but couldn’t save him.

In this passage firstly the author described visiting the nurse. He described her actions such way she took the left arm out from under the covers and put her fingers on the wrist, found the pulse, then consulted the watch… She did her duties, but she didn’t enquire the boy’s condition at his parents. She just entered the room and started her work. Nothing had guarded her. She made a conclusion the boy was stable.

The author used description to the nurse (the nurse was a big Scandinavian woman with blond hair. There was the trace of an accent in her speech). Before the name A Small Good Thing this story had a name The Bath. In that story the descriptions of nurses and doctors were omitted. The author underlined that she was a foreign nurse. What if she didn’t always understand her patients. She had an accent and didn’t always spoke properly (Doctor will be in again shortly. Doctors back in the hospital). She could make a fatal mistake in her work.

In this extract the parents had expressed their fears and dangers the first time (I don’t think he should keep sleeping like this. I don’t think that’s a good sign). But the nurse ignored it.

Then the author depicted short scene when Howard looked at his son and recollected some terrible facts. F.ex. when Ann called him at his office and informed the accident. Howard was in shock (he felt a genuine fear starting in his limbs), he hadn’t realized the incident yet. The author tells about that a person tends to ask a question to himself why it has happened with him not with anybody else. (Scotty was fine, but instead of sleeping at home in his own bed, he was in a hospital bed with bandages around his head and a tube in his arm).

Then the doctor was introduced to the story. First of all what Dr. Francis did he made a careful examination of Scotty (He took the boy’s pulse. He peeled back one eyelid and then the other… He listened to the boy’s heart and lungs with his stethoscope. He pressed his fingers here and there on the abdomen… He studied the chart.). The author used some terms (stethoscope, abdomen, chart) to underline the professionalism of the doctor. But he came to strange conclusion (He’s all right… He’s in shock… it was a bit of concussion… He’s out of any real danger) at the same time he admitted the fracture of the skull.

The desperate mother set a diagnose herself (It’s a coma). Because it was logically right to be a coma in case of fracture of the skull and deep sleep. The author used many repetitions in doctor’s speech (He’s all right… He’s out of any real danger… I wouldn’t want to call it a coma) as if the doctor tried to persuade himself more than the parents, he misled them.

At the end of this passage the author proved the worse expectations. Ann put her hands over the child’s forehead and exclaimed He feels so cold!

If the reader collects all the symptoms, he won’t have any doubts it is a coma. The boy was cold, without any reflexes and with silent breath. The nurse and doctor should have noticed the arrhythmic breath because they took the pulse and listened his heart and lungs; lack of reaction on light because the doctor peeled back eyelids; oppression of digestive system because he checked the boy’s abdomen. In spite of this the doctor advised not to worry. The parents could only ease each other and pray.

The author depicted absolute negligence of the staff. No one of the medical staff tried to help this boy. They just made endless tests, took blood, made extra X-rays but nothing had changed. The boy died. The doctors explained it as a hidden occlusion and it was a one-in-a-million circumstance.

The author touched many problems in this story. The main is human relations to each other. Doctors’ negligence is a result of human indifference in the community. People are getting more isolate. Remember the moment when the car knocked down the boy, the car driver looked back over his shoulder, waited until he boy got unsteadily to his feet, put the car into gear and drove away. On the other side, grief can make even unfamiliar people close one. When Ann and Howard came to the baker in order to stop his endless rings, they chattered till the early morning. I think that actions of that medical staff can be considered as criminal. The death of Scotty was not the only one case.

This extract can be divided into 3 parts. The first tells about the nurse. The second is about doctor’s visit. And the last tells that parents tried to comfort each other.

This passage was written in form of dialogues with some short descriptions. The prevailing mood of the text is tense (she stood working her lip with her teeth) and uneasy. The suspense is increasing till the boy’s death.

To sum up, the main idea is difficult human relations to each other. People are getting more isolate, aloof, uninterested to other people’ problems. One of the consequences of that changing became frequent doctors’ negligence, doctors’ errors. Although one of the doctor’s table says don’t do harm.

Analysis.
From: W.S. The text was written by Leslie Poles Hartley. He is a famous English writer. L.P. Hartley was a highly skilled narrator and all his tales are admirably told.

“W.S.” comes from “The Complete Short Stories of L.P. Hartley” and was published posthumously in 1973. The story told about a writer Walter Streeter. He was snowed under the postcards which came from anonymous. Initially, these postcards didn’t disturb the writer. He tore them away. But some days later, Walter Streeter cast his eyes over the initials of the anonymous and was shocked by such odd coincidence. The initials were his own. Walter appealed to his friend, then to the police. They advised him not to worry considering that W.S. could be a woman or even someone who never show up in the flesh.

The structure of the text is not homogeneous: the narration is interrupted by the elements of description. Inner thoughts and feelings of the main character are interwoven with the narration. The story about Walter Streeter is a psychological tale. The main character is constantly struggle with himself during the story. He tried to find the explanation of the origin of these postcards. And when he couldn’t do it, he became actually a borderline case. The author told about the splitting personalities. He described in details the stages of this condition. It makes the tension of the atmosphere gradually increasing and getting its top at the end of it. Maybe this text is about that creative people are a little mad inside. Hartley described the Walter’s madness through his works. They are not homogeneous (there is the cleavage in his writing), one paragraph languorous with semicolons and subordinate clauses, and another sharp and incisive with main verbs and full stops. Analyzing this text deeper, it can be found other pretext. Any writer should be responsible for his works. If he writes bad work, he should realise that this work can impact on other people and bring up their emotions wrongly. As far as postcards are concerned whether Walter sent these postcards to himself we can say. Perhaps they were sent from his enemies to destroy his morally so that he couldn’t work. I suppose they were a source of supply for him and created a new reality. They changed his mind. At the end he put them behind the clock on the chimney piece. He couldn’t live without them, they were a part of him. The end of the story is written like a detective one. The tension of the story reaches the apogee when Walter noticed the each next postcard was sent from a place geographically closer to him. There are many interrogative sentences that show hesitation and anxiety of the character. There are a lot of stylistic devices, such as antonomasia - “Walter Streeter”; zeugma – “took up the time and energy”; metonymy - “faint strings of curiosity”; personification – “growing pains”; periphrasis – “conscious mind“, “little mouse-like creature”, “poisonpens”, many examples of inversion. The language of the writer is very rich and full of various kinds of stylistic devices and that makes his story more vivid and picturesque.

Analysis “The tell-tale heart”.

The tell-tale heart was written by Edgar Allan Poe. He is well-known American writer who is famous for his short stories. He described the short story such way: short enough to be read in one sitting and constructed to create a single effect.

The tell-tale heart is one of the most dreadful Poe’s stories. This story tells about a person, who commits the murder of the old man. The crime was carefully planned. Seven nights running the murderer came to the old man and rehearsed his plan. When he killed the old man, he dismembered the corpse and hid it under the floor planks. Next day when the police came to search the premises, the murderer stood calm and welcome. Nothing betrayed him as a murderer except from steady heart beating of the old man from under the planks. The murderer was sure the police heard this beating and just hold him in derision. He confessed he admitted the deed.

The author depicted the scene of “ideal crime”. The crime which has no object can scarcely be revealed. And only criminal conscience can expose him.

The story begins with the word “True”. It can mean that murderer admits his guilt. Poe depicted a character who is convinced he is not mad but has a rare disease. This disease sharps his senses, especially the sense of hearing acute. During the story the main character constantly tries to persuade the reader he is not mad. I suppose he is not mad, but when a person tries to prove sth steadily, it has an opposite effect. His repetitions of being not mad could make sb believe in his madness. The question, if the criminal was mad or not, is one of the main. The story was written in 1843. 3 years earlier came out the law which announced the innocence of those criminals who were really mad.

I was interested in the way of telling the story from the first words. The narrator used short, abrupt sentences in his tale. He used many repetitions and do not want to miss any detail. The closer the end was approaching, the more tense was increasing. The murderer was a bit nervous but he enjoyed describing the crime. He was proud of himself how wisely and cunningly he organised the crime. The author doesn’t tell who the interlocutor of the murderer is. It is hardly possible it is lawyer, more probably it is a cell mate.

One of the symbols of the text was the eye of vulture. According to the words of the murderer definitely the eye became the object of the crime. The evil eye made him furious and uncontrollable. The evil makes people serve to it. The author said no word about the relations between the old man and the murderer. Perhaps the murderer wanted to get freedom and independence and it was the reason of his crime.

A lot of details strike the reader’s eye while reading. For example, seven nights running the murderer rehearsed the crime; he committed the crime at midnight. There were a lot of references to other world presence.

Moreover, one more point which strokes my eye was the murderer told the process of preparing to the crime much longer than the moment of committing the crime. The murderer was obsessed with process, action more than with result.

The last passage was the culmination. The author depicted the emotional condition of the murderer. He was pale. He heard the heart beating under the floor planks. In fact it was his own beating. But he could not cope with his emotions. The author used many verbs with negative connotations (foamed – raved – swore). He used graphical device to underline the main points. Emotions in the last passage reached their apogee.

One of the main ideas of the text is human obsession. The author exaggerates the influence of it. The better way is to have moderation in everything. The author’s purpose for writing this tale is to show the thoughts of a man whose type of thinking is totally different from other people. However, no one person has the right to take the life of the other one. It is a moral sin.