Commenting on Word-Choice

1. Commenting on Word-Choice and Unpacking Metaphors

2. Click to advance presentation

3. Commenting on Word-Choice • In close reading, or textual analysis, if asked to comment on word-choice, you have to pick out key words • Next you have to say what effect they have • This means talking about connotations

4. For example • “The little girl was only three. She was thin and waif-like; her eyes were very large and blue; and her skin was waxy and pale.” • What impression of the little girl is given by the word-choice?

5. First - state general impression • The little girl seems frail and vulnerable.

6. Next - explain how the word-choice creates this impression. • The word ‘only’ emphasises her youth. • “thin and waif-like” sounds very vulnerable. The word ‘waif-like’ has connotations with (or is associated with) starving children. • “waxy and pale” suggests a person who is ill, perhaps even a dead person.

7. What are connotations? • They are ideas or images which a particular word calls to mind • A word can have positive or negative connotations • Connotations can be odd, or threatening, or even amusing

8. Try commenting on the impression given by the word choice below • “He was not a tall man - no, quite small - with a wispy moustache and curiously slender wrists. But he had a sense of strength about him, something firm and unresisting, a toughness that was hard to pin down but impossible to mistake.”

9. First pick out the words you might choose to comment on • “He was not a tall man - no, quite small - with a wispy moustacheand curiously slender wrists. But he had a sense of strength about him, something firm and unresisting, a toughness that was hard to pin down but impossible to mistake.”

10. Write down your own comments, before comparing them with mine on the next slide. They shouldn’t be identical - but along similar lines. “He was not a tall man - no, quite small - with a wispy moustacheand curiously slender wrists. But he had a sense of strength about him, something firm and unresisting, a toughness that was hard to pin down but impossible to mistake.”

11. What impression is given? • The writer is at some pains to stress the man is “not a tall man”. He is “quite small”. Other words also emphasise his vulnerability - “wispy” suggests this and so does “curiously slender wrists.” But then his “strength” is emphasised with words like “firm and unresisting” and “toughness”. Here the combination implies a really determined character.

12. Where imagery is used, it gets slightly more complicated • By ‘imagery’ I mean • Simile (NB spelled like SMILE but with an extra i at the front) • Metaphor • Personification ( a kind of metaphor)

13. Quick reminder: what is a simile? • When two things are compared using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ (or sometimes ‘than’) • For example: She was as pleased as punch. • Or: The girl ran faster than the wind to find her master. • Or: The food tasted like heaven

14. Quick reminder: what is a metaphor? • When the writer says one thing IS another (but really it is just a comparison) • For example: She was his willing slave. • Or: The girl ran on winged feet to find her master. • Or: The bread was food of the gods.

15. Quick reminder: what is personification? • When the writer describes a thing (or an animal) as if it’s a person • For example: The wind whispered sweet nothings in her ears. • Or: The ocean opened its huge mouth and swallowed him forever. • Or: The car’s engine coughed at her reproachfully.

16. How to comment on imagery • First work out what is really being compared with what • Identify the image - metaphor, simile or personification • Note any other language effects present (e.g. alliteration, onomatopoeia) • Think about the effect of the whole thing • [The word choice may have connotations you should mention too]

17. Here’s an example. A simile. • He ate like a mad-man, tearing off huge crusts with bared teeth. • Comment? • This simile compares him to a mad person. This suggests he is frantic and strange. The ‘bared teeth’ sound aggressive and intimidating.

18. Here’s an example of a metaphor. • The woman slithered across the floor, her snake-eyes bright with intent. • Comment? • Comparing the woman metaphorically to a snake has a sinister effect. “Snake-eyes” have unpleasant, dangerous connotations.

19. And personification? • The lift groaned under the weight. • Comment? • Using the word ‘groaned’ personifies the lift and makes the reader feel almost sorry for it.

20. Now some for you to try • She was like a huge lorry, bearing down on them at 100 miles per hour. • Comment?

21. And another • The tyres on the car screeched misery as the brakes screamed their last • Comment?

22. And another • The house eyed them malevolently, its windows glinting. • Comment?

23. If still unsure • go back to the examples and look again • or talk through the examples with a friend • Good luck!