One Stair Up free essay sample

The text presented for analysis is an extract from the story â€Å"One Stair Up† by Campbell Nairne, dealing with the everyday life of average working-class family. The extract gives the readers a dynamic episode of their day-to-day experiences, providing them with an opportunity to observe the relationships both between the members of the family and between them and the society. Throughout the whole story we perceive the characters mostly by means of their internal monologues – implicit characterization. We never find their physical traits described, which is another instrument helping readers portray the couple for them and try walking in the protagonists’ shoes. We explore only their inner world, knowing nothing about the outer, and it doesn’t prevent the characters from being round and full-blooded. The main message of the fragment is implicit conflict of the real and unreal worlds. The text combines descriptive and narrative elements, with the actions both performed by the main characters and originating from their surroundings, which interacts with our characters to highlight their individual reactions and attitudes. We will write a custom essay sample on One Stair Up or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The extract places our characters in a modeled environment – a cinema theatre used to expose all the aspects their characters, when observed in an unfamiliar surroundings, as the theatre isn’t their natural habitat. The major part of the introduction is devoted to the depiction of the illusionary world the characters enter – both through audial and visual imagery – they were â€Å"treading without sound on a †¦ carpet †¦ that yielded like †¦ turf†, going through â€Å"a dim region of luxury†, which was â€Å"quite still† except for small sounds of â€Å"a tea-spoon chink, a cup grate on a saucer, a voice rise above another voice and sink again into voluptuous silence†), which implicitly reinforces the idea of metaphorical ascension, since the earthly sound briefly rise to their level and disappear below again. The visual part of the imagery is strongly connected with the lighting. The characters enter â€Å"a hot darkness lit here and there by red lamps and speared †¦ by a shaft of white light falling on †¦ the screen†. The description makes the screen the focal point – the single clear point in the obscure world of the cinema theatre. One of the distinguishing features of the extract is the prolonged exposition part used to describe interior of the theatre they visit and highlight the contraposition of the personal world of the couple and the cinema world. The image creation starts wit the very first sentence, where the characters go â€Å"up a short marble staircase†, which gives us an allusion to â€Å"Jacob’s ladder† with the couple ascending from mortal world to more perfect world (the world of dreams). The image of â€Å"another world† is maintained and reinforced throughout the exposition part by using trite metaphors and descriptive elements creating the atmosphere of illusionary world refusing to accept the characters fully (â€Å"yielded like spring turf†, â€Å"quite still† â€Å"dim region of luxury†; â€Å"a girl †¦ silently emerged†, â€Å"lit here and there†, â€Å"came †¦ out of shadow†). The complication part begins with the first interaction between the main characters (Rosa’s question â€Å"This a comedy? †), where the tone for the development of the story is set. Now our attention is fully devoted to the leading characters, depicted skillfully by the author. The effect is achieved by placing Rosa’s and Andrew’s behaviors in subtly described opposition. Internal monologues let us see the thought patterns of both the main characters. Rosa’s first actions inside the hall give us an insight of her personality. She â€Å"surveyed the dim amphitheatre in hope of recognizing some of her acquaintances†. Only after that she â€Å"looked for the first time at the screen†. The verb â€Å"to survey†, usually used, when scientific problems are discussed, implicitly describes her as a logical and calculating person, who came to the cinema with a selfish purpose in mind – to be seen in public with her new boyfriend, because it â€Å"pleased her to be seen in the dress circle, even with Andrew†. Rosa asks the question to demonstrate that she’s interested in the film, while she actively looks for someone to show off to. Andrew, on the contrary, pays no attention to the people around him and his words and thought are only about the fictional story he is to enjoy (â€Å"the awful temptation to explain the story in a whisper when he fancied he saw the end of it†). Andrew is portrayed in different colours. Right when they entered the hall, he huskily thanked the service girl. He then politely asked Rosa, if she could see the screen, and, upon receiving her nod, he â€Å"risked no further inquiries† because he was â€Å"forbidden to talk to her in a cinema†. This shows him as an obedient and submissive person, he obeys Rosa like a child obeys parents. Andrew’s childish persona also shows when he has to â€Å"resist that awful temptation to explain the story in a whisper when he fancied he saw the end of it†. His use of elliptic sentences also doesn’t fit the image of an adult person. Those sentences (â€Å"No bored, are you? †) and lower style lexical units (â€Å"It’s hot stuff, isn’t it? †) belong to colloquial speech and indicate that he has no aristocratic background – he belongs to the working class. A noteworthy episode of the story is the description of the advertisement seen before the main film. The author mixes the quotations from an advertisement with his own remarks, which are even more swelling and exaggerative than the advertisement itself. He says â€Å"The film seemed to have smashed all records†, and we have to doubt deeply, whether he is speaking frankly. The signature conflict of the story is clearly expressed in the author’s characterization of the film, where the fictional story is said to be â€Å"tingling with reality†. An important feature of the story is that the moment the screen lights up, Rosa disappears from the narration entirely and we only see and hear everything through Andrew. By this the author explicitly shows that Rosa is in no way related to the illusionary cinema world, that she can never enter it. Even the over-the-top advertisement, filled with such stylistic devices as hyperbole to bring out the author’s ironical attitude towards such films leave her detached, only perhaps mildly irritated. All these moves are used to bring to us, the readers the idea that Rosa and Andrew are mirrored opposites, with him being â€Å"a big †¦ kid† and her – a dried-up and irritable person. (â€Å"is he really so stupid†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). The two heroes are faced with the problem of misunderstanding. The gradation follows the rein, further escalating the external conflict between the personalities of Rosa and Andrew, with him absorbing himself in the film action and her becoming more and more irritated with the film plot and jokes and Andrew’s reaction. Her irritation grew and the inner conflict turned into an external one. The culmination takes place when Andrew breaks out, â€Å"forgetful in his excitement†. Full of delight, he wants to share his impressions with Rosa, but meets only cold misunderstanding. The denouement comes with Rosa uttering several harsh remarks. The author uses metonymy to show the effect her words had on Andrew: â€Å"all the joy died out of his face and eyes†. According to the old saying, â€Å"words can kill you†, and the person killed was Andrew’s inner child. Denouement includes Andrew’s stuttering excuses and Rose’s attempts to make up for her harshness. We can see that she acts on the saying that â€Å"a lean peace is better than a fat victory†. In the given fragment the author uses a wide range of stylistic devices. Here are examples of epithets (â€Å"voluptuous (stillness)†, â€Å"rapid-fire (drama)†, â€Å"soft (whirring)†, â€Å"hot (darkness)†), metaphors (â€Å"a shower of stars†, â€Å"a shaft of white light†), metonymy â€Å"young bloods†, simile (â€Å"a carpet that yielded like springing turf†). He also exploits ellipsis â€Å"This a comedy? †, â€Å"You see all right? † to imitate the colloquial language and to show the low education level of the speakers. To render the peculiarities of the thought stream, he uses simple syntactical constructions, many one-member nominative sentences (â€Å"Custards all over the place†, â€Å"Oh, yes, a stick of dynamite. ), rhetorical questions (â€Å"Where was it going to put that? †), and exclamatory sentences (â€Å"Oh, this was good†! ). Personification is used throughout the text (â€Å"pot-plants and palms leapt up†). The extract I thought   it was quite funny, you know — I mean, people laughed. I wasnt the only one. But if you dont like it — is especially remarkable. It sounds unconnected, the same idea is repeated twice (â€Å"I thought †¦ I mean†). The speech is interrupted: hesitation pauses are shown with the help of the dashes. Evidently, poor Andrew had a lack of words. Moreover, aposiopesis is used. All these expressive means show us how great was the extent of the boy’s confusion, and unwillingly the reader’s heart fills with sympathy for him. No doubt, the author has a fine and remarkable style, everything seems to reflect the feelings of the heroes, and as a result, the events emerge in our mind in the most realistic way. The reader is immersed deeply into the life of those two â€Å"young bloods†: readers perceive the world through their eyes and put themselves into the characters’ shoes.

TOEFL Essay Sample - How to Choose One

TOEFL Essay Sample - How to Choose OneMany students are now working on their TOEFL test taking essays and a TOEFL essay sample. The TOEFL is an English language test, which is recognized by many professional associations and universities around the world. This TOEFL test is known as the College Board International English Language Test.Many professionals now have the option of taking this exam as it does not just give the student a set amount of time to pass the test, but it also allows you to find out exactly what type of English that you should be learning. It also tells you about your weaknesses and what type of English your are most likely to want to correct. A TOEFL essay sample will help you make the right choices when it comes to your TOEFL essay. In this piece, we will discuss how to choose a TOEFL essay sample, how to format it properly, and how to make sure that you can study with it on your test day.If you have ever had any experience in writing or marketing, you may have come across article writers who use lists to do their research and to put together their articles. These writers will often gather around tables to sit down and work out how they can make their topic sound even more interesting. The TOEFL is no different in that regard. It may look like a list but it is actually made up of basic elements that you will need to master before you even try to write a TOEFL essay.The first element that you will need to work with is the length of the essay sample. This may seem like an odd choice, but you will see that many professional organizations will encourage their members to use these short articles. This can be an important aspect for any student to consider, especially if you want to make sure that you are able to pass the test. However, if you take too long, then you will become less skilled at writing essays and also less successful at getting a job after you graduate.You will need to include a brief introduction to your essay. This can be as s imple as stating the topic of your essay and the reason why you chose to write this particular piece. The introduction should not go into great detail but you should at least cover the subject area well enough to let your reader know what you will be covering. In fact, you should make it a point to give your readers as much information as possible so that you can highlight your strengths and you can at least compare your strengths with those of other participants on the test.You will need to work with what is called an outline in order to get the most out of your essay. This can be very simple. It is important that you include all of the information that you need to include in order to make sure that you do not forget any of it. This is particularly true if you choose to list what you intend to write in an appendix at the end of your essay. In fact, you will want to make it a point to include all of the major sections of your essay in an appendix.The final thing that you will need t o do is to know what part of your TOEFL essay sample you will use in order to compare your strengths with other participants. You will also want to make sure that you get all of the major areas covered. You may find that this means leaving out sections of your sample altogether or you may find that you need to rework your essay into one that you are more confident in. The decision will be up to you.