Виктория
Help with text analysis please =)

Anything you can say..
I need some key words which can show me the right way of analysing. Unfortunately my level of english doesn't allow me to answer such questions (which are not simple to discuss even in my own language). We didn't have any lectures of how to start with the analysis, which aspets should be discussed, where to take information. It's a seismic shift for me! Such a deep analysis. So I need your guidance)
Here is the text


Old Man at the Bridge (E.Hemingway)

An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road. There was .a, pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, and men, women and children were crossing it. The mule-drawn carts staggered up the steep bank from the, bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the wheels. The trucks ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle deep dust. But the old man sat there with,-out moving. He was too tired to go any farther.
It was my business to cross the bridge, explore the bridgehead beyond and find out to what point the enemy had advanced. I did this and returned over the bridge. There were not so many carts now and very few people on foot, but the old man was still there.
"Where do you come from?" I asked him.
"From San Carlos,"* he said, and smiled.
That was his native town and so it gave him pleasure to mention it and he smiled.

"I was taking care of animals," he explained.
"Oh," I said, not quite understanding.
"Yes," he said, "I stayed, you see, taking care of animals. I was the last one to leave the town of San Carlos."
He did not look like a shepherd nor a herds­man and I looked at his black dusty clothes and his gray dusty face and his steel rimmed spec­tacles and said, "What animals were they?"
"Various animals," he said, and shook his head. "I had to leave them."
I was watching the bridge and the African looking country of the Ebro* Delta and wonder­ing how long now it would be before we would see the enemy, and listening all the while for the first noises that would signal that ever myster­ious event called contact, and the old man still sat there.
"What animals were they?" I asked. "There were three animals altogether," he explained. "There were two goats and a cat and then there were four pairs of pigeons." "And you had to leave them?" I asked. "Yes. Because of the artillery. The captain told me to go because of the artillery."
"And you have no family?" I asked, watching the far end of the bridge where a few last carts were hurrying down the slope of the bank.
"No," he said, "only the animals I stated. The cat, of course, will be all right. A cat can look out for itself, but I cannot think what will become of the others."
"What politics have you?" I asked. "I am without politics," he said, "I am seventy-six years old. I have come twelve kilometers now and I think now I can go no further."
"This is not a good place to stop," I said. "If you can make it, there are trucks up the road where it forks for Tortosa."*
"I will wait a while," he said, "and then I will go. Where do the trucks go?" "Towards Barcelona," I told him. "I know no one in that direction," he said, "but thank you very much. Thank you again very much."
He looked at me very blankly and tiredly, then said, having to share his worry with some one, "The cat will be all right, I am sure. There is no need to be unquiet about the cat. But the others. Now what do you think about the others?"
"Why they'll probably come through it all right.
"You think so?"
"Why not," I said, watching the far bank where now there were no cartst
"But what will they do under the artillery when I was told to leave because of the artil­lery?"
"Did you leave the dove cage unlocked?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then they'll fly."
"Yes, certainly they'll fly. But the others. It's better not to think about the others," he said.
"If you are rested I would go," T urged. "Get up and try to walk now."
"Thank you," he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down back­wards in the dust.
"I was taking care of animals," he said dully, but no longer to me. "I was only taking care of animals."
There was nothing to do about him. It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro. It was a gray overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up. That and the fact that cats know how to look after themselves was all the good luck that old man would ever have.

 

Questions:

1) Describe grammatical pecularities of narration and conversation.

2) What syntactic features contribute to the extreme simplicity of the dialogue?

3) What makes narration more complex in it's syntactic organization?

4) E.Hemingway's syntax is characterized by relative simplicity. Prove it on the material of the text.

5) Comment on the role of the adjective 'dusty' and it's repetition in the story ('dusty clothes', 'dusty face'..)

6) Define the effect of polysyndeton in the text.

7) Find and comment on all the syntactic devices which are used by the author to show the difficulties of war time for soldiers and civil population.

8) What communicative and structural types of sentences are used here to show the old man's trouble for his animals?

9) Comment on the grammatical value of the word 'one' in the sentence:"I was the last one to leave the town of San Carlos" and define the meaning of the sentence in the old man's fate. 

10) What grammatical means in the final sentence of the story serve to underline the tragic fate of the old man?

2013年4月24日 13:17
评论 · 3

Maybe Hemingway himself wouldn't be able to help you haha. But you're right, it's too sad he took his own life. At least he can live forever through his writing.

2013年4月24日

I love too, but...I wish he were alive...to ask him, how to analyse his texts =)))

2013年4月24日

Hemingway is one of my favorite authors. Love his short-stories. 

2013年4月24日