“The sweat ran down into his eyes and stung them, making him shake his head from side to side. At this point the tunnel was about four feet across and five feet high. Jack kept sticking the spade into the earth ahead of him, hacking it out as though he hated it. He had lost track of how long he had been underground. He found it easier not to think when he might be relieved, but to keep digging. The harder he worked, the easier it seemed. It must have been six hours or more since he had seen daylight, and even then not much of it, but a thin green haze across the lowlands of the French-Belgian border, lit by the spasmodic explosion of shells.”
The particular paragraph at the beginning of Part 2 of Birdsong is used to continue the introduction to Jack Firebrace, a miner in the trenches. Sebastian Falks portrays the way Jack passes time whilst digging forty-five feet underground and the way he felt about his job. “Jack kept sticking the spade into the earth ahead of him, hacking at it as though he hated it”. Although this appears at first to be describing the way in which Jack carries out this task; in fact there is a hidden metaphor portraying how the work is easier if he let’s out his true feelings towards the war: “The harder he worked, the easier it seemed”.
A sense of setting and atmosphere is created at the end of this paragraph through the imagery used. “A thin green haze across the lowlands of the French-Belgian border, lit by the spasmodic explosion of shells”. This creates a more peaceful image of the sights and sounds in the trenches as to Jack this sight was more appreciated after the long time he spent underground. The use of short sentences throughout the paragraph and then the following of this long complex sentence, emphasises this aspect.
The mood of Jack and the way in which he deals with his situation is revealed through: “He found it easier not to think when he might be relieved, but to keep digging.” This backs up the extended hidden metaphor mentioned earlier in the paragraph as the soldiers concentrate on making time pass quicker whilst fighting in the war by becoming oblivious and reluctant to face the realities of war.
The particular paragraph at the beginning of Part 2 of Birdsong is used to continue the introduction to Jack Firebrace, a miner in the trenches. Sebastian Falks portrays the way Jack passes time whilst digging forty-five feet underground and the way he felt about his job. “Jack kept sticking the spade into the earth ahead of him, hacking at it as though he hated it”. Although this appears at first to be describing the way in which Jack carries out this task; in fact there is a hidden metaphor portraying how the work is easier if he let’s out his true feelings towards the war: “The harder he worked, the easier it seemed”.
A sense of setting and atmosphere is created at the end of this paragraph through the imagery used. “A thin green haze across the lowlands of the French-Belgian border, lit by the spasmodic explosion of shells”. This creates a more peaceful image of the sights and sounds in the trenches as to Jack this sight was more appreciated after the long time he spent underground. The use of short sentences throughout the paragraph and then the following of this long complex sentence, emphasises this aspect.
The mood of Jack and the way in which he deals with his situation is revealed through: “He found it easier not to think when he might be relieved, but to keep digging.” This backs up the extended hidden metaphor mentioned earlier in the paragraph as the soldiers concentrate on making time pass quicker whilst fighting in the war by becoming oblivious and reluctant to face the realities of war.
Great Sian - an independent and thoughtful response :)
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