To Blk 1: Feedback on 'Toads and Dancing Monkeys'

2 things:
1. Please be reminded about the pointer on seeing the passage as a whole when you write commentaries in future.
2. Here are some more references to humour that I did not have time to cover during the feedback on Saturday 12 April.

Seeing the passage as a whole

You need to see how the various language devices work together to achieve the writer’s purpose of informing and entertaining the readers.

Questions to ask yourself:
• What is the general meaning or message in the passage? (Answer: About his journey up the hills in West Africa in a decrepit lorry in the company of a few West Africans. Although he is anxious for his safety , Durrell takes the journey with a sense of humour and is fascinated by the beauty and vitality of the landscape.)

• How does Durrell use language to get across his meaning/message successfully? In particular, how does he use figures of speech to make the account of his journey vivid, humorous and lively?

• Which figures of speech are used most in the passage?

• Which figures of speech are the most effective in emphasizing/enhancing his description? (answer: in this case, personification is the most important device in contributing to the humour and vivid description. Other figures of speech such as alliteration and onomatopoeia are used together with personification (eg 'It stood there on buckled wheels, wheezing and gasping with exhaustion')




References to humour
(1)
Most West African lorries are not in what would call the first flush of youth... (l.1)
Understatement - this is a sarcastic and humorous way of saying these lorries were practically worn out by old age.


(2)
.....I consigned myself and my loads to it with some trepidation. The driver, who was a cheerful fellow.... (‘ 4-5)
Humour is produced from the contrast between narrator’s fear and driver’s complete oblivion (lack of awareness) to it.


(3)
Secondly, I had to keep a stern eye on the clutch, a wilful piece of mechanism, that seized every chance to leap out of its socket (l 8-9)
The clutch is personified as stubborn and mischievous.

(4)
Not even a West African lorry driver could be successful in driving while crouched under the dashboard in a pre-natal position...., (l 10 )
The word ‘even’ suggests he marveled at the skills of West African drivers but also humorously implies that their skills lay in handling decrepit vehicles. The position ‘crouched under the dashboard in a pre-natal position’ is described hyperbolically for comic effect.


(5)
Home again, home again,
When shall I see my home?
When shall I see my mammy?
I’ll never forget ma home… (l.20-24)

The song sounds like a lamentation (a song expressing grief or mourning) but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves singing it ( ‘the boys lifted up their voices in song’; the driver and the narrator ‘harmonized’ and the driver ‘played a staccato accompaniment on the horn’. Hence humour is derived from the contrast between the appropriate mood of the song and the actual mood of the singers.


(6)

...the driver and I harmonized and sang complicated twiddly bits (l.27)
‘To twiddle’ means to twirl or rotate something without purpose. ‘Complicated twiddly bits’ probably refers to the nonsensical parts of the song that were hard to sing but were splendidly managed by the good-humoured Durrell.