The Danger of a Single Story

“Danger” : foreshadows how dangerous it is to misinterpret people’s stories

“Story” : metaphor for fiction
“Speech” : so refer to ethos, logos and pathos

“I’m a storyteller” : personal, short sentence

“A few personal stories” juxtaposes “the danger of a single story” : establishes a cautionary tone
Modesty and honesty reflected in how “four is closer to the truth”, has pathos. Audience more
likely to listen to what she has to say

“My poor mother” : humour, she’s likeable

Line 8 = listing ; emphasises monotonous nature of her stories, how uninspiring they are
Theme of colonisation: whitewashed characters
“All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples…” = “my”
means the characters are all she had, yet “they” shows that there is still a disconnect so there’s a
sense of IRONY

Stories that she read were the antithesis to her life - shows how impressionable we are in the face
of a story, especially as a child
“We” = sense of unity, anaphora

“There weren’t many of them available” - irony in how there are more American books than
African

“Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye” - credibility and ETHOS

“Now I loved those American and British books” - TED talk, doesn’t want to lose her audience
(speech takes place in California) and shows her intelligence and makes her more likeable
“I did not know that people like me could exist in literature: = personal anecdote, sustains her
point and giving evidence for her claim of single stories

“The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor” = restricted
perspective, that’s her single story of Fide, highlights SHARED experience
“Finish your food!” - pathos, humour

“Their poverty was my single story of them” - single story

“My American roommate was shocked” - another viewpoint, another example of other people’s
single story for her. THEME OF MEDIA
Separation of MEDIA and how media portrays different perspectives: sustains her point
“Very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey” - humour
“She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove” - emphasis on shock in a single line

“Single story” = anaphora constantly repeated signifying the shock she felt, she had no idea she
was being portrayed in this way.
“Pity” = repetition, different perspectives

“Beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals… dying of poverty and AIDS…” = listing is a crescendo into
bad things then leaving people with the idea of WHITE SAVIOURS.
“I would see Africans in the same way that I, as a child, had seem Fide’s family” = another parallel
back which brings her down to the same level as white people - relating this back to herself
evokes pathos and makes her more likeable

“Quickly” - adverb
“As often happens in America, immigration became synonymous with Mexicans” - USA media is
more polarised, one sided
“Endless stories” - emphasises the problem with single stories

“I could not have been more ashamed of myself” = stereotyping example, increases relatability

“So that is how to create a single story” = propaganda recipe

“As only one thing, over and over again” = impactful short sentences emphasise how everyone is
just a part of our perception
“That is what they become” = Reality and people become who we perceive them as, people are
nothing more than what is defined by our perception of them

“Stories matter. Many stories matter” = takes the blame off the people, impactful short sentences

“Have been used to dispossess” = can deprive someone of their dignity

“We regain a kind of paradise” = freedom, biblical allusion to Heaven, beauty of freedom
associated with accepting all perspectives
A Passage to Africa

Written during Somali civil war

Ephemeral - lasts a short time (when man went into hut)

“Hungry, lean scared and betrayed faces” - listing of adjectives = suffering of masses painted with
ANONYMITY
“There is one I will never forget” - sets up expectations, intrigue, he doesn’t care about the others,
there’s a sense of APATHY

‘In the back of beyond” - plosive alliteration, hyperbole

“A place the aid agencies had yet to reach” and the listing in paragraph 2 = ISOLATION
“Fifteen minted approx - like a ghost village…” - briefness, fractured reinforced by ellipsis which
shows distance and amplifies it
“Like a ghost village” - soulless, empty and depressing

“Ghoulish manner” - journalists feed of the dead

“On the hunt for the most striking images” - they only care about fame, dehumanising the
African, accustomed to their suffering, his fame takes precedence over humanity
“I tramped” - predatory journalist, whilst Somalis are vulnerable
“No longer impressed as much” - predatory, accustomed
“Is like craving for a drug” - desensitised and GREEDY
“Same old stuff” - dismissive, can’t empathise with Somalis’ suffering
“We collect and compile” in the “comfort” - weaves words together with PLOSIVE “c”, implicitly
creating a thread which links them to the audience, depicting our privilege compared to Somalis.
SHIFTING blame onto consumers. Our comfort juxtaposes their pain

Sentence structure in the middle of the paragraph varies longer sentences describing the situation
(and the prolonged suffering of the children) with a short dramatic sentence in the middle
describing the death in order to shock the reader with the quickness of it. Suggests the normality
of these deaths.
“Habiba had died.” - simple sentence, monotonous, reflects how quickly she died
‘No rage, whimpering” - simple and clinical tone, ANAPHORAS,
“Simple, frictionless, motionless” - death is accepted, tricolon: how quickly people move on after
a death. highlights how there is no time to mourn, and that they need to move on or her other
daughter will die
“Deliverance” - relieved to pass away. Now she is free from earthly bonds, sadness, despair and
suffering. Looks forward to death as it is what rescues her. Shocks reader as conditions are
reversed: Death is better than Life
“Half life” - dead even though they’re alive, amplifies their pain
“Abandoned by relations who were too weak to carry her on their journey” - sympathy she's been
abandoned by the world. Yet it doesn't blame the family, because they have to find food for
themselves, so cannot care for her. This shows the extreme choices people have to make in this
famine.

“Decaying flesh” - vivid image of suffering

“You could see it in her sick, yellow eyes and smell it in the putrid air she recycled with every
struggling breath she took.” - hissing sibilant - girls agony and pain
“Gentle V shape of a boomerang” - juxtaposes the pain she’s been through, romanticises her pain.
“It was rotting; she was rotting” - parallel sentence structure, she’s nothing more than an object.
The victims are objects and are dehumanised. Disturbing for Western readers. Repetition of
rotting emphasises her struggle for survival. Her dirtiness and pitiful state is striking. Hopelessness
is accentuated and sense that she isn't quite human anymore
“Air she recycled” - air loses its freshness, lack of resources

“And then there was the face I will never forget” - one sentence paragraph. ‘And’ highlights how
this face stood out from the rest of the faces he encountered, meaningful

‘Pity and revulsion. Yes, revulsion” - shocks the audience, honesty for credibility
“Sucked of its natural vitality by the twin evils of hunger and disease, is a disgusting thing”
personification of disease and hunger, 'evils' suggests these two forces: villain type figure, it’s not a
tangible enemy
“We never say so in our TV reports” - disgust
“Excretion of fluids” - graphic, visceral reaction of disgust
“Hear and smell” - incorporating senses
“Surreptitiously to wipe your hands after you’ve held the clammy palm of a mother who has just
cleaned the vomit from her child’s mouth” - simile shows implicit guilt for his actions, yet poignant
as it shows motives of news reporters. This pure, maternal instinct is treated with such revulsion.
The Somalis are stripped of their humanity and are slaves to their suffering and their body whilst
the media FILTERS what we see for the MAXIMUM profit

“They aspire to a dignity that is almost impossible to achieve” - contrasts with previous paragraph
and encourages reader to have great respect for them
“Dying man who keeps his hoe next to the mat” - as if he had hope he will survive to till the soil,
tilling the soil symbolic of life, yet irony is created due to how this hope of life juxtaposes the
situation. Futile hopes, evokes pathos

“Smile” - the repetition emphasises how preoccupied she is.

“ - how could it be? - “ disjointed sentence structure emphasises altered mindset, rhetorical
question poses a question to the audience, his thought process
“Beyond pity and revulsion” - repetition of both words from previous page, reader is hit with his
altered mindset

“What was it about that smile?” - poses question again

“And then it clicked” - epiphany, character development?
“The kind of smile you might give if you felt you had done something wrong” - Somalis feel
embarrassment and guilt for being in so much pain, the dying feel no dignity in death

“The journalist observes, the subject is observed,” Lexical choice of “subject” and the
repetition of observe emphasises the dehumanisation of the somali people
“Me and him, between us and them, between rich world and poor world” - the gap between
the wealthy and the Somalis, yet the “smile” bridges the gap between them. Concept of
unity. Implies that there is nothing separating us at all. Each story of suffering must be given
the same importance, urgency and commitment.

“Write the story of Gufgaduud with all the power and purpose I could muster” - conveys
guilt, this is the only way he can answer the question of ‘how should I feel to be standing
there so strong and confident’
Repetition of “I” emulates his determination

“I never found out what the man’s name was” - The fact that he never found out his name
shows that for him he became simply an object, without a name, he becomes more than the
'facts and figures' which the narrator thinks of as easy journalism, doesn't show the human
story. Names distinguish people from simply being things, showing his own inadvertent
dehumanisation of his subject. Contrasts with his revelation about the suffering that he saw.
“Yet meeting him was a seminal moment” - lexical choice of “seminal” might refer to its
botanical meaning, when a plant or flower blooms during spring. “Smile” has changed
writer’s perspective on his profession and caused him to “bloom” into a different man with a
different outlook on the world
“So, nameless friend, if you are still alive, I owe you one” - directly addresses the man he
saw, as the nameless man changed his perspective. Tone = casual and friendly, yet ironic
considering he doesn’t even know his name

The Explorer’s Daughter

“Narwhal were spotted again, this time very close” - short phrases separated by commas increase
tension, increasing excitement
“Catching the light in a spectral play of colour” - gentle, calm beauty of the narwhal doesn’t seem
threatening but instead we see the narrator’s appreciation of their behaviour. Majestic, slow, large
movements
“Slowly, methodically passing each other by” - humanises them, they’re careful and cautious like
us, makes us feel bad for them. Peaceful and intelligent depiction of narwhals with soft “ly”
sounds
“Scrambling back up to the lookout” - juxtaposes narwhal’s graceful movements, yet shows
excitement of the hunters. Present continuous tense adds to action and excitement
“Glittering kingdom” - religious imagery, links to heaven. Fantastical and dream-like
“Sharp intake of breath” - physical response is a visceral image of narrator’s excitement
“Hunters were dotted all around” - men appear small and insignificant compared to the narwhals.
Yet, shows their bravery in the face of such monumental creatures and the extent they’re willing
to do to provide for their family
“The evening light was turning butter-gold” - warmth juxtaposes the cold situation, almost acting
as a spotlight for the narwhal’s beauty. Magical feel
“Glinting off man and whale” - balance of life between man and narwhals, showing their
interdependence. Portrays them as equals, challenging the conflict of ‘hunting vs preservation’
“Soft billows of smoke” - surreal, slow, soft “o” and sibilance emphasises tranquillity, yet the
“smoke” is a sinister jump back to reality
“Hunters were close enough to touch the narwhal” - excitement
“Distances are always deceptive in the arctic” - the plosive ‘d’ links distances and deceptive to
signpost the mysterious and immeasurable nature of the Arctic: indicates the moral dilemma as
there are no rules or answers here
“Fell to wondering if the narwhal existed at all or were instead mischievous tricks of the shifting
light” - blurring of reality to show the Arctic as other-worldly
Entire paragraph is long to increase tension

Complex and long sentences to inform us: shift in tone

Specialist jargon convinces us to take the article seriously

“Essential contributor to the survival of the hunters in the High Arctic” - reasons for the hunting,
links back to moral dilemna
“For centuries the blubber of the whales was also the only source of light and heat, and the dark
rich meat … harpoon tips” - listing highlights uses of narwhals and its necessity in the lives of the
native people
“Central beam for their ancient dwellings” - vital for their life: physically to build homes and
metaphorically as it supports their society.
“The ends of their tusks are worn down or even broken from such usage” - drawing empathy back
to narwhals, contrasting earlier listing

“The women clustered on the knoll of the lookout, binoculars pointing in every direction, each
woman focusing on her husband or family member” - danger of situation and fragility of men’s
lives, creating empathy, sense of community too
“Each wife knew her husband instinctively” - complex sentence structure shows hardship and
complexity of the hunt.
“Small gasp or jump as one of the women saw a hunter near a narwhal” - physical indication of
terror, underlining danger and importance of catching a narwhal
“It was part of their staple diet” - pertinence of narwhals
“Much-need extra income” - pre-modifier shows poverty, helping us sympathise with the hunters
“Vast waterborne game with the hunters spread like a net around the sound” - Many men against
the few narwhal inspires sympathy for the narwhal but also creates tension as we wait for the
climax when the narwhal is caught. Strategic irony in how this isn’t a game to them and it’s their
life. Oxymoronic (game and spread like a net) - fun yet almost dangerous
“The narwhal … are intelligent creatures’ - short, informative section, breaking exciting tension and
leaving the reader wanting more. Writer’s appreciation for the animal, and structure conveys
persona’s thought-process
“They talk to one another” and “their hearing is particularly developed” - personification and
anthropomorphism inspiring sympathy and bringing the narwhals up to our level
“That … was why the hunters had to sit so very still” - suspense, precarious, dangerous

“One hunter was almost on top of a pair of narwhal, and they were huge” - visceral contrast in size
conveying vulnerability of the man
“In that split second my heart leapt for both hunter and narwhal” - refes back to moral dilemma
“I urged the man on in my head” - narrator is a reflection of the reader, drawn to the story
“; he was so close” - semi colon is a pause for tension
“Be capsized or drowned” - dauntless nature of the man
“The hunter had no rifle” - lack of good weapon (that is expected of the hunter) amplifies his skill
and bravery
“My heart urged the narwhal to dive, to leave, to survive” - triad indicates narrator’s desire for the
narwhal’s survival: makes the reader feel conflicting emotions

“The dilemma stayed with me the whole time” - moral dilemma foregrounded, shifting the tone
of article. It reflects questions raised from the experience, rather than recounting the event
“I understand the harshness of life in the Arctic” - almost as if she’s convincing herself, she’s
uncertain still
“The needs of hunters” “protected because of their beauty” - balanced arguments for both sides of
the moral dilemma
“How can you possibly eat seal” - addresses what the reader feeks
“Men battering seals” “but the Inghuit do not kill using this method” - an image we have
experienced, as readers in a Western world, is falsified by the contrasting truth
“They use every part of the animal they kill” - defends them, but doesn’t actively support them,
shows humanity and how much they respect the animal
“Hunting is still an absolute necessity in Thule” - uncertain ending, allowing reader and narrator to
continue reflecting on their personal beliefs towards narwhal hunting and come up with their own
conclusion. BREVITY

.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place

To reinject tension cuz reader already knows conclusion (man got out safely): security is
removed by using present tense

“Another” “this” - determiners highlight experience

Semantic field of measurements - knowledge, thoughtful, insightful, appreciation for
complexity of mountain climbing
“Wedged” “claustrophobic” “short tunnel” - tightness and claustrophobia, show discomfort,
“Refrigerator” “opening into a bowl” - relatable language, easy for reader to understand level
of danger

“Narrow passages” “stem” “counterpressure” - semantic field of mountaineering, experienced

and astute, confident in his ability to escape
“Passages” “possible” “across” “slot” - sibilance, aural representation of him moving
throught tight space, we still feel tension, it foreshadows the danger he will be in
“My hands, feet, back” - tricolon reinforces vulnerability, tight space

“If I can . . . rounded rocks piled on the mountain floor” - confidence and risk-taking shown by
“if” which builds tension

“Stemming” “fully-extended arms” “I lower” “kick” etc - dynamic verbs and semantic field of
body parts shows high energy movement, excitement
“Teeters slightly” - subtle foreshadowing that it will fall
“Climbing down from the roof of a house” - danger

“I feel the stone respond” - shift in how the man was in control, all the verbs highlighted his
power and strength, and now how the environment responds. His loss of control
“Scraping quake” - sound and movement, we experience this through his senses
‘Instantly I know this is trouble” - shift from tension to suspense, event is about to happen
and his internal narrative confirms our concerns
“Instinctively” - he’s no longer thinking things through, panic
“Consumes the sky” - the rock is powerful, aggressive
“Fear shoots my hands over my head” - personification of emotions shows how they are
detached from his body and he is no longer in control of them

“Time dilates” - time slows down, juxaposing speed of stone falling down, sudden change in
time throws us into immediacy of it falling, long sentences replicate slow motion
“My reactions decelerate” - helpless
“Smashes” “yanks” “crushing” - semantic field of violence, body parts are no longer being
used with skill, but are instead conveying how injured he is becoming (asyndetic listing of
body parts), helplessnes foregrounded
“Palm in, thumb up” - fractured language shows pace
“Then silence” - fragmental sentence cutting long sentences highlights how quickly
everything stopped

“My disbelief paralyzes me” - personification of emotions and pain throughout this
paragraph, how body fails to gain control. Disconnect between his mind and body.
Overwhelming helplnessness. All this personification and metaphorical language juxtaposes
the literal language used earlier, showing his loss of control
“Vanishing” - juxtaposes earlier knowledge and confidence, there’s a sense of mystery
“Implausibly” - as if it doesn’t make sense
“Good god my hand” - shock and worry, emotive language in internal narrative
“Grimace and growl” - animalistic alliteration, sensory language and facial expression, builds
immediacy and connote pain
“Get your hand out there!” - exclamation and direct speech
“Naive” - aware of his own jelplessness
“Brain conjures up” - magical, has to use fiction to regain confidence, doesn’t feel real
“But I’m stuck” - short sentence, simplicity of declarative conveys helplessness

“...” - ellipses conveys hesitation in the movement, combining with the present tense, they’re
like his mind going black and his knowledge escaping
“My body’s chemicals are raging at full” - building hope and momentum
“Nothing” - fragment, brutal interjection conveying helplessness and how he truly cannot get
out

Explorers or boys?

“Explorers or boys messing about?” - juxtapositon between connotations of skillful

adventurers vs childish and irresponsible behaviour. They answer this question in the article.
“Either way, taxpayer gets rescue bill” - dismissive tone, use of ‘taxpayer’ makes the public
enraged (use of present tense and singular makes audience feel as though they’re the only
ones paying”
“Rescue bill” - metonymy (using a similar word) to manipulate audience, he’s trying to build
anger in the audience so that they reflect his own emotions

“Plucked” - makes the the explorer seems ridiculous, making them seem stupif
“Antarctic crash” - catches the attention of the reader
“Russians” “British” “Chileans” - semantic field of nationalities underlines magnitude
of disruption they’ve caused

“Farce” - it means a humorous play which characters get into unlikely situations, again
ridiculing the men
“Plunged” - a lot of verbs used throughout the article to ridicule the explorers
Nine-hour rescue” - time taken, mocking and ridiculing
“Royal Navy, the RAF and British coastguard” - emphasises scale of trouble caused by
tricolon of a large range of military services

“The men’s adventure had cost” - active tense places the blame clearly on their shoulders
“Cost the taxpayers” - it’s plural, showing the scale
“Tens of thousands of pounds” - by leaving ambiguity, allows readers to come up with their
own conclusion as to how much the rescue cost. Manipulating the audience

“Four-seater Robinson” - makes them seem knowledgeable with the jargon

“There was also confusion” - passive voice heightens impact of confusion, ambiguous about
scale, makes it feel as though a lot of people are confused
“Claims” - casting doubt on their reliability
“In their “trusty helicopter” “ - quotation marks emphasise this sarcasm and doubt even more,
juxtaposes expert opinion

“The pair were up to” - childlike imagery from colloquial language, her input adds a personal
source

“The drama” - continues farce imagery, making it seem comical

“42 and 40” - connotations of their ages juxtaposes their farce imagery and maturity
“Also known as Q” - reference to James Bond, there’s an irony as the character of James
Bond contrasts this guy who had to get rescued

“Called his wife” - humorous

“Emergency watch, a wedding present” - humour, juxtaposition of extreme situation and

everyday mundanity
Connotations of wealth + ridicule + severity of the situation = angry audience, narrator plays
on that

“Deciphered “Coordination centre”

“Surveying” “Steaming” “Dispatched - semantic field of expertise

“Steaming” - present continuous tense showing competency

One was driven back because of poor visibility” - avoidable situation, even the following
paragraph with the survival suits

“Pair wore survival suits”

“Nothing short of a miracle”

“Experience adventurers”
“Trekked solo”
Walked bare foot”

“Survived a charge by a silver back gorilla” - all these connote risk and eccentricity, these
facts all establish pattern. The fact that they failed to acknowledge how this was a
completely avoidable situation and continued with their reckless behaviour further enhances
the audience’s anger. They should have known! Give this info after they’ve been established
as immature enhances how stupid they seem.

“Claims” - yep again

“Hit the headlines” - dramatic metaphor with connotations of infamy

“Poised” - facade of respect for the boys, as well as the jargon used int this paragraph

“They were forced to call a halt” - juxtaposition between power and impressiveness of
adventure
“Russian authorities” “lift them off the ice” - undermining their power against the Russian

“Good and relations between and east and west” - synecdochr, makes them seem naive, as
if thry could create world peace by going on this adventure. Sarcastic and mocking team.

“Questioned” “editor of Jane’s Helicopter Markets” - expert opinions, again mocking the men,
making them seem naive and dumb

“Not known what had gone wrong” - inexperienced, silly

“Excellent” - direct contrast with everything we have seen in the article, undermines them
further, it’s a direct quotation from them, they take no responsibility

“Pick up the bill” - makes this economic impact feel personal

“They’ll probably have their bottoms kicked” - colloquial language creates a juxtaposition
between the sensible military and the middle-aged men. Portrays them with this childlike
naivety and stupidity
Young and Dyslexic

“As a child, I suffered” - immediately draws you in

“But learned to turn dyslexia to my advantage” - starts with a conclusion
“To see the world more creatively” - takes us on a journey, empowering
“We are the architects, we are the designers” - anaphoras to build a sense of camaraderie
Piece is in chronologiclal order to show how the events unfold - throughout the piece, his
age is used to show how time moves on

“No compassion, no understanding and no humanity” - absolute, with the anaphoric tricolon
“The ones who wanted to have an individual approach weren’t allowed to” - anecdote,
referring to themselves, witty humour
“The idea of being kind and thoughtful and listening” - asyndeton
“The past is a different kind of country” - other schools suffocate progress due to protocol

Personal anecdote, witty humour, adds personality and entertains reader

“Isn’t that a design fault?” - links back to motif of design enabling dyslexic kids to translate
their dyslexia into creativity
“She had a point” - to be sure paragraph to maintain audience, pathos and likability
“The thing was, she called me stupid for even thinking about it” - repetition of harsh words to
highlight the teacher’s suffocation of his creativity. Critical and condescending tone from
teacher
There’s no embellishment, no hyperboles and it’s verbatim to allow the reader to be
objective

“Africa and the ‘local savages’” - gathers velocity, power, and it’s all more prominent in the
first person. DEFIANT

“We can’t all be intelligent” “he was stereotyping me” - ableism and stigma against dyslexic,
snowballing anecdotes

“I thought that so long as you read how much the banknote was worth, you knew enough” -
banknote is a metaphor for a capitalist society
“You knew enough or you could ask a mate” - reliance on others

“Because of arguing with teachers on an intellectual level” - humor, relatability, likeability

“I didn’t stab anybody” - expects people to stereotype him as that, accustomed to people
constantly judging him and expecting bad things from him
“He could say that in a classroom” - teachers can say absurd things and get taken seriously,
but the moment a child with dyslexia engages in academic discourse, they’re immediately
shunned
“Drove it into his front garden” - release of anger and frustration at a corrupt school system,
voicing morally wrong opinions and silencing those which challenge and evoke creativity

Balances his credibility with statistics

“I should be in prison: a black man brought up on the wrong side of town … and on top of
that, dyslexic” - listing to build velocity. The odds were not in his favour, yet he still defied
them. It’s a crescendo.

“But opportunities opened for me and they missed theirs, didn’t notice them or didn’t take
them” - tricolon to show how narrator defies the odds.
“Same as me” - he doesn’t bring them down to make himself better, he’s treating the
prisoners as his equals, likeability

“I never thought I was stupid” - reference to earlier, and repetition of I makes it personal, the
informal register appealing to a younger audience
“I just had self-belief” - trusts himself, he knows that his dyslexia doesn’t bring him down, he
doesn’t believe he’s inferior because of it

“Especially within the black community” - recognition of his heritage

“People didn’t think they were dyslexic poems, they just thought I wrote phonetically” -
people don’t have a negative perspective on the implications of dyslexia when they don’t
know he is dyslexic. We are conditioned into believing those who are dyslexic are
unintelligent and inferior, when in reality the implications aren’t necessarily bad. Inverts the
stereotypes.
“Do I need an operation?” - humour, likeability, easy to sympathise with him
“She explained to me what it meant” - turning point of the story

“I wrote more poetry, novels for teenagers, plays’ - turns dyslexia to his advantage
“Still now” - dyslexia hasn’t been eradicated from his life, he introduces realism, credibility,
he isn’t providing us with a romanticised version of dyslexia. Verbatim.

“You can do this course” - his speech is in the direct address

‘If you don’t have passion, there’s no point” - points to himself, and how passion is the
reason he succeeded, with his dyslexia
“I never read one of my novels in public” - harsh reality check
“All my energy goes into reading the book and the mood is lost” - he can ruin his own art due
to his dyslexia, so he adapts by allowing an actor to read it instead at festivals.

“In the same way, if someone oppresses me because of my race, I don’t sit down and think”
- uses racism to amplify stereotype, makes it easier for audience to relate and understand
his perspective, POIGNANT

“What’s unnatural is the way we read and write” - sense of irony in how an author is saying
this
“The word for a woman because the character looks like a woman” - backs up his points yet
again with facts and figures
“It is a strange step to go from that to a squiggle that represents a sound” - philosophical,
sibilance emphasising how genuine his point is.

“So don’t be heavy on yourself” - colloquial

“If you are a parent of someone with dyslexia, don’t think of it as a defect” - plosive
alliteration to highlight to heart of his poem: dyslexia doesn’t make you inferior and tainted
“You may have a genius on your hands” - shock
“This requires being creative and so your ‘creativity muscle’ gets bigger - the advantages of
being dyslexic to convince the audience that dyslexics are better than us in some forms,
direct address to parents

“See the world differently” - cry of rebellion, he is a powerful advocate for dyslexia
“We are the architects. We are the designers” - cyclical
“I didn’t have that as a child” - very matter-of-fact
“Bloody non-dyslexics… who do they think they are?” ellipsis shows a crescendo into the
conclusion abnd highlights how he is cheeky and likeable
A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat

Strange, eye-catching title - first section being normal, western, relatable and elegant and
then being bizarre, barbaric and violent - there’s a stark contrast

“We drove off to find the best viewing spot” - begins with immediacy, connotations of racings
and caes which foreshadows the race, fast pace speech reflecting wild and exciting nature of
the race, building it up, in media res
“Crest of the hill so we could see” - harsh consonants add intensity to the race, monosyllabic
words add pace
“The lads” - masculine, aggressive
“Wacky Races” - sense of adventure and excitement that western readers can relate to (it’s a
famous western cartoon), also dramatic irony as readers know what’s gonna happen,
foreshadows chaos and anarchy, yet there’s a childlike excitement
“We’ll open the car boot, you climb inside” - exciting and chaotic
“That’s no problem” - confidence

“Karachi sport” Western ideas

“Fired up with enthusiasm” - amateur, childlike excitement
“We waited for eternity” - anticipation
“Zoom lens pointing out” - the technology contrasts the environment they’re in (Pakistan),
perhaps even a contrast in worlds is showm
“I was beginning to feel rather silly” - slower pace reduces tension
“Wobbly bicycle” - bike seems pathetic compared to the goats
“Who nearly fell off” - quirky and comedic side of Pakistan
Attention to minor details within Levine’s description highlight her disappointment and a
sense of potential anti-climax during the stretched out lull in tension
Small paragraphs emphasise speed of the race

This paragraph has a very calm tone

“Several vehicles went past” - false confidence
“Coming, coming” - ambiguous and uncertain, crescendo into excitement, yet the repetition
also adds a sense of urgency
“Beginning to lose faith” amplifies uncertainty and juxtaposes wgar was about to happen

“Two approaching donkey-carts in front of a cloud of fumes and smoke” - cartoonish

imagery, immersing reader
Vehicles roaring up in their wake” - onomatopoeia immerses readers again
“Yaqoob revved up the engine” - rising action, Yaqoob and Iqbal’s free spirits
“The two donkeys were almost dwarfed by their entourage” - they seem so puny and
insignificant in the face of such crowds, highlighting the pertinence of donkey-races
“Speeds of up to 40 kps” - fast, factual
“Neck-and-neck” - excitement, fast and monosyllabic words to accentuate speed
“Perched” - sense of instability
“Energetically although not cruelly” - the people aren’t entirely barbaric

“Horns tooting, bells ringing, and the special rattles” - audible, immerses you
“(like maracas, a metal container filled with dried beans)” - informative
“standing on top of their cars and vans, hanging out of taxis and perched on lorries” - triad
emphasises chaos, primitive showing the nature and the free spirit of the people

“Yaqoob chose exactly the right moment” - portrays Yaqoob as skilled, proficient
“edge out of the road and swerve” - edge and swerve contrast to highlight the sudden
change in speed
“Formula One without rules” - Western references to elucidate the sheer chaos and
excitement
“complete flouting of every type of traffic rule and common sense” - chaos, barbaric

“young driver relished” - youth, adoration and excitement

“It was survival of the fittest” - animalistic and wild
“Nerves of steel” - Yaqoob’s daring personality
“There were two races” - race for the spectators to get to see the donkey race, and the
donkey race
“Yaqoob loved it” - simplistic and joyful, Yaqoob enjoys the minimal moments
“His language growing moe colourful” - humorous image endears the reader about Yaqoob’s
passion
“The road straightened and levelled, and everyone picked up speed as we neared the end of
the race” - heart of the race, building up towards a climax
“there was a near pile-up” - danger, came out of the blue, shows uncertainty
“The race was over” - short and definite. Anti-climax. Sense of shock and reader is left
wondering

“And then the trouble began” - short sentence structure continues conveying the continuity of
a foreboding tone
“Voices were raised, fists were out and tempers rising” - triad of anger, conveying violence
and passion of the local people

“Yaqoob and Iqbal were nervous” - sudden shift from daring to worried shows seriousness of
the situation and unpredictability of Pakistan
“Ordering me to stay inside the car” - respect for women, and despite their wild attitudes,
they’re still good at heart
“Swallowed up by the crowd” - hostile image
“I think we should leave” - short and certain, creating a sense that the situation leaves no
room for explanation
“More sedate pace” - calm, contrast with earlier
“I’m underage” - reckless

“They both found this hilarious” - adventurousness

“I was glad he hadn’t told me before” - conflicts viewpoint above highlighting the cultural
differences that separate them from Levine
“Could have caused problems” - relatively light-hearted tone. Instead of reprimanding herself
forgetting into this situation, she’s exhilerated by the risks

H is for Hawk
“Don’t want you going home with the wrong word” - foreshadows what’s going to happen,
yet there’s a deeper meaning behind “wrong”, it refers to the emotional connection between
bird and girl

Listing - anticipation, close scrutiny

“Dark interior” - mystery and suspense
“Sudden thump” - adverb + onomatopoeia
“As if someone had punched it, hard” - analogy connotes power
“Like us” - tension, raising questions, how will the bird respond?

Multiple short sentences - hyperfocus conveys tension

“Daylight irrigating the box” - growing power
“Scratching talons, another thump. And another. Thump” - tension
“The air turned syrupy” - the atmosphere is changing because of the bird, showing its sheer
power
Long syndetic list - shift from anticipation to awe, sensory language
“Wings and feet and talons” - strength is conveyed by specifying the talons in this tricolon
“Great flood of sunlight drenches us” - daylight irrigating box has taken a step further, water
imagery shows how it escalates
“Everything is brilliance and fury” - hyperbolic, the two halves of awe
“Barred and beating” - plosive
“Cutting the air” - violence
“Her feathers raised like the the scattered quills of a fretful porpentine” - reference to Hamlet
Scene 1 Act 5 Line 20 when porpentines would throw quills when in a bad mood, aggression
“My heart jumps sideways” - metaphor for awe
“Conjuring trick” - she’s majestic
“A reptile” - impressive, powerful, kinda scary
“A fallen angel” - sinister, dark power behind the beauty
“Griffin” “Iluminated beastiary” - historic, power through the ages (beastiaries are from
Victorian times)
“A broken marionette” - broken state of bird, how much Helen cares for it
Range of images shows Helen’s mixed emotions towards the bird
Range of short sentences shows how Helen struggles to come up with a description
which encapsulates the bird
“She is seeing” - shift from ‘Hawk’ in pronoun which anthropomophisises bird
“It was a box. But now it is this” - shift from long to short sentences conveys shift to
innocence and vulnerability due to overwhelming change
List - varied and specific language highlights how Hawk is overwhelmed by her own power

“The man was perfectly calm” - contrasts presentation of bird, caring

“Folding her wings, anchoring her broad feathered back” - present participles show skill
“Frail bluish egg” - vulnerability
“I loved this man” - echoes of a father-daughter relationship, reminding Helen of what she
used to have. Perhaps man and hawk is similar to relationship between father and daughter,
because of caring language
“The whole world” - overwhelming beauty
“I tucked the hood over her head” - she is becoming the new carer, what she has lost,
perhaps the hawk reminds her of herself? That’s why she enjoys taking care of it
“Thin, angular skull” - vulnerability
“Fizzing and fusing” - fricative alliteration, fear

“It was the wrong bird” - short sentences,

“This was not my hawk” - internal narrative

“Oh” - one word sentence shows disappointment, immediacy of her thought process (italics),
everything else stops and all she can feel is her disappointment

“And dear God, it did” - shock, speechless shown by colloquial language

“Came out like a victorian melodrama” - shows uncontrolled, emotional power
“Smokier and darker” - connotes darkness which contrasts earlier semantic field of light
“Great awful gouts” - g sound onomatopoeia shows power
“This is my hawk” - internal narrative shows lack of connection with hawk
“I didn’t recognise her. This isn’t my hawk” - doesn’t want to accept the hawk
“...” - ellipses show fractured thought
“White faced woman with wind-wrecked hair and exhausted eyes” - approximant alliteration
highlights description of woman and how she looks like a typical woman in victorian
melodrama, similarities between her and the bird
“Medea” - alluded to mentally isntable woman, there’s a duality between her darkness and
vulnerability, as a result of her grief
THIS BIRD IS HER

Beyond the Sky

“Beyond the sky” - heavenly

“Mountains all around, climbing up to peaks, rolling into valleys” - asyndeton highlights how
mountainous the region is
“Climbing” “rolling” - present participle, bringing the mountains to life, personifying them and
adding movement
“Bhutan is all and only mountains” - awe, hyperbolic
“Landscape, landmass meeting landmass” - alliteration and repetition showing size
“A giant child gathering earth in great arms” - metaphor, creating a vivid image, humorous
and playful imagery
“It is easier…fall through” - long developed sentence: reflects vastness of landscape around
her
“Rock” “valleys “gorges” - semantic field of nature

“Thimpu, the capital” - combines factual info and descriptive language for sense of
amazement
“Five different flights over four days” - isolation highlighted my fricative alliteration
“From Toronto to Montreal to Amsterdam to Calcutta” - difficult of journey to get there
“I watch mountains rise to meet the moon” - personification and hyperbole, the metaphor
makes her sound childlike, combined with the alliteration
“I used to wonder what was” - airy approximant alliteration emphasises her childlike awe
“I found out: on the other side of the mountains are mountains, more mountains, and
mountains again” - colon fractures the sentence to highlight the alliteration of mountains,
which in turn underlines the colossal size
“The entire earth is below us” - isolation
“Convulsion of crests and gorges” - chaos
“The winter air is thin and dry and very cold” - polysyndeton conveys the lack of pollution

“Instant coffee, powdered milk, plasticky bread and flavourless red jam” - drab contrasts
beauty of the environment
“Both Lorna and Sasha have travelled extensively” - emphasis on their experience
“Hoping to pick up some of their enthusiasm” - she has mixed feelings

“It doesn’t even have traffic lights” - comparison with Western world, back in Canada
“Same pitched roof” - bleak contrast with the beauty of the nature
“Beams painted with lotus flowers” - irony in how they paint nature, when there is already so
much beautiful nature around them
They seemed to be selling the same things … Orange Cream Biscuits” - listing
“Hideously coloured orange cream biscuits” “infiltration” - disappointed at the westernisation,
western aspect of Bhutan is what makes it less enchanting, almost taints its beauty, beauty
comes from the nature and the culture of Bhutan
“There are more signs of the outside world than I had expected”: surprised by the
amalgamation of Western cultures in such a remote place
“Bhutanese-ness” - juxtaposes her sophisticated diction

“Cracked sidewalks and faded paintwork” - unexciting and ugly man made structures
contrast beauty of nature
“Dzong - one of the fortresses” - violent and ancient culture, Bhutanese language enables us
to connect with culture
“Thimpu is actually new” - sarcasm
“Will look like New York” - mocking

“A grand, whitewashed, red-roofed, golden-tipped fortress” - asyndetic listing highlights

overwhelming beauty and charm of the “traditional” structure, contrasts poorly built buildings
earlier

“The Bhutanese are very handsome people” - even the beauty of the Bhutanese is natural
“Beautiful, aristocratic faces with dark, almond-shaped eyes” - clustered adjectives highlights
overwhelming beauty of the people
“The women wear a kira” - more factual info, admiration of the culture
“People look at us curiously” - reminder that they are white, western people who do not fit in,
and are infiltrating the culture
“Few other foreigners” - fricative alliteration, very few and they’re infiltrating too

“Walks with us” - approximant alliteration highlights kindness

“Impeccable english” - admires him
“Most-dignity, unselfconsciousness, good humour” - amazed by how civilised they are
“Grace” - repeated, biblical connotations of poetry, heavenly and beauty

“Most interesting” - shows enthusiasm and interest in subject, intrigue

Cue to factual info smh
“Buddhism” “Shamanism” - religious references, she exudes knowledge in every aspect of
Bhutan
“Collection of isolated valleys” - loneliness
‘District of desires” “Land of Longing” - alliteration highlights beauty
“Blooming Valley” - biblical allusion to Garden of Eden, perhaps

“Varying hue but similar cry” - modifies idiom to make satirical point about effect of European
colonialism on the world
“Had his back slapped, his hair pulled and his face rubbed with wet dough” - passion of
Bhutanese for independence, passion for their country
“Remarkable” - admires Bhutan’s preservation of independence
“I am full of admiration” - respect, “I” pronoun highlights this, personal