The Siege By Helen Dunmore Commentary

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-Describe the mood of the “white nights” (named as such in line 20) in the opening paragraphs and analyse how it is created. -Consider the presentation of Anna. -Comment on the narrative voice. “The siege” by Helen Dunmore is a book that talks about the siege of Leningrad, which according to extra textual information, was a place, founded by Peter the Great of Russia, and to this day, is known as St. Petersburg. The book touches some painful memories of Russia in that time as the siege lasted for 872 days and had an enormous loss of civilians. In the extract itself, the author is describing a time when summer has just began, and introduces a few characters that shall be discussed later on in the essay. There are also several themes brought out in this story that help, I think, enhance the message of the author when describing this time in Russia. The most enhanced theme that I could find in the story is the theme of happiness, which ultimately reflects on the mood brought out by the “white nights”. First of all, I interpreted the meaning of “white nights” to mean the long daylight hours, or the presence of the season of summer. The theme of happiness is brought out several times in the story. “…however old you are…and suddenly you know that there’s no greater happiness than to be here, even when you’re so old you’re beyond walking…” is one of the lines in the extract, line 19, 22 and 23. This element of happiness was brought out to me by the fact that even during these tough times, when they were going through murder and things like being overruled, when summer appears; it is as if everyone forgets their problems, even for a little while. The author also uses words such as “…the words didn’t matter. The noise of happiness was what mattered…” which gives us this emphasised mood described by the author that ultimately describes the mood of about

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