Figurative Language In Sixty Lights

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‘Why is Sixty Lights worthy of critical study and inclusion on the HSC Prescriptions List for module B- Critical Study of Text?’ The novel Sixty Lights has been included on the HSC Prescriptions List for Module B because it is worthy for critical study as it is a diverse piece of literature covering significant topics that have been ignored in the modern world. We enter the lyrical and image-laden world of Sixty Lights. It’s a tale, resplendent in colour and imagery, set across two worlds - the constrained and stilted world of Victorian England, and the chaotic danger and abandon of India. Gail Jones creates literature, like Shakespeare, but in this particular piece explores the significance behind photographs and what they represent.…show more content…
The light associated with an image in each chapter is an ‘entirely new vision’ for Lucy, which sheds light on her world. ‘Knowledge comes only in flashes’ is the epigraph for part two also being enforced again in the epigraph for part one. The language of the novel is often as dense as poetry and contains highly original and interesting figures of speech; many of these are associated with the light and dark imagery. There are many examples throughout the novel but 1 universal language feature is similes. Similes are the most common figures of speech used in the novel; ‘…a hat which curved around her face like a materialising halo’. This light imagery is often associated with an almost religious experience as people are seen with halos like Arthur’s mother in chapters 12 and 13 and specifically in this quote, Lucy’s imagining of her mother in chapter 7. Although the language of the novel can come across as quite compelling to the audience, the overwrought lyrical prose can be quite tiring. The plot of the novel is obviously fictional with Lucy seeing her life as a series of photographs tortured into forced images by Jones, which can be hard for the HSC students to relate…show more content…
The small chapters have been divided into three parts all revolving around the life of the protagonist, Lucy Strange. These parts of the book follow a chronological progression through Lucy’s life although within each part the order of events is not chronological. Part one especially is fragmented as it jumps back and forth in time. Although Sixty Lights is cleverly structured with high textual integrity, its worth in the HSC may have been challenged as it is almost over structured, which can lose the focus especially through the jumping of tense of the
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