Commentary On Excerpts From Nature

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This extract is a first person narrative , where the narrator describes her aunt. The aunt is in a rest home due to her old age. “She weighs nothing”; and her “knotted hands” are an indication of her pitiable condition. A number of techniques have been used to characterize the aunt. The sentence structure communicates the idea of her old age. Direct and indirect characterization has been employed, and the narrator also shares some of her aunt’s life experiences. As the narrator characterizes her aunt, we come to know of the relationship between the two, particularly the narrator’s attitude towards her aunt. In addition, metaphors and detailed descriptions have been used to share some other ideas, such as the relationship between the elderly and modern society . The narrator uses very long sentences throughout the passage. The first two sentences are seven and five lines long respectively, and the shortest sentence in the passage is three lines long . There are dull, lengthy descriptions that keep stretching on. This is indicative of life in old age: it is often dull, with long periods of inactivity. Most elderly citizens are retired, and life has no real focus or direction. It is especially so when one is suffering from a medical condition and is bedridden for most of the time, as the narrator’s aunt is in this passage. The narrator has employed direct characterization to tell us about the aunt’s old age (as has been discussed before), and also her favourable relationships with others: “she was famous for her pies and her kindness to neighbours”. A tone of fondness can be observed as the narrator describes her aunt. This is observed once again towards the end of the passage when the narrator admires her aunt’s self respect and her strong will to fight back when she is ill treated by society. The narrator also indirectly characterizes the aunt through a

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