Q2. Look in detail at lines 3-10

How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator’s first impressions of the countryside?

The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above me and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger-skins of sunlight. It was knife-edged, dark, and a wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt through the air like monkeys. I was lost and didn’t know where to move. A tropic heat oozed up from the ground, rank with sharp odours of roots and nettles. Snow-clouds of elder-blossom banked in the sky, showering upon me the fumes and flakes of their sweet and giddy suffocation. High overhead ran frenzied larks, screaming, as though the sky were tearing apart.

 

EXEMPLAR ANSWER A

The writer uses language to describe the narrator’s first impressions of the countryside as dangerous. Firstly the word choice of “towered” suggests overpowering, being oppressive and something to be scared of as it is bigger and dangerous. This shows the narrator feels the countryside is overwhelming and unavoidable. Secondly the word choice of “tattooed” suggests leaving a permanent mark, of something that causes pain and of something that harms the body. This shows the narrator to feel the countryside as being something that has damaged them in a lasting manner. Finally the word choice of: “knife-edged” suggests damage, hurt and severe danger. These words all show the narrator’s first impressions of the countryside to be that it is dangerous and could cause them serious, lasting harm.

EXEMPLAR ANSWER B

The narrator’s first impressions of the countryside are threatening and scary. The writer describes the grasses surrounding him with frightening, aggressive imagery. The grass is described using the word “blade” alluding to the “knife-edged” shadows which now show as “wicked green” in the darkness and confusion of the new surroundings. These shadows coupled with the light falling through the trees and shining on him are also described as being “tattooed with tigerskins”, an image of being hunted by a primitive enemy, being a hunter and indulging in violence, and being permanently marked by this experience.