Essay

This practice is helping me a lot. 

Pre-Write

Characterize Arun’s experience

·         Diction- tone, setting-indirect characterization

1.       Speaks in third person, “Arun must” makes him sound like a robot, tone is on neither extremes, very calm and worry free,

2.       The conflict between who to fall behind implies they worry about what the other thinks, this could imply feeling for one another, Arun’s starts to sweat when he enters the forest area, he likes controlled environments and the environment makes him worry

Desai characterizes Arun’s experience through the use of several literary techniques. Desai uses certain diction to create a tone for this passage. The audience is also able to understand the impact of the experience on Arun through the setting and the use of indirect characterization.

Arun is presented like a robot and the tone supports this robotic feel by being calm. When the women tries to convince Arun to come to the pool the author says “Arun must” go.  Instead of giving Arun free will, Desai makes Arun sound like a robot. This robotic theme continues throughout the passage with the calm not extremist tone. There is little excitement or depression throughout the passage. Everyone is fairly calm and Desai doesn’t use many words that evoke strong emotions. Even when Arun goes through the forest the audience is not meant to share his same fear.

The forest experience does trouble Arun however and Desai describes the impact on him through indirect characterization. Arun starts to sweat when he gets near and inside the forest. This shows an accelerated heart rate because of nervous fear. We learn more about Arun through a bit of internal monologue. He likes being in an office in a safe work environment. In other words Arun likes to be in control of his situation and nature is the exact opposite of controlled for him. Too much can go wrong and he doesn’t want to risk the consequences. We learn more about Arun’s relationship with the young women because of their walking experience. The conflict of not knowing who to follow implies a concern for the other’s opinion.  They don’t want to embarrass themselves in front of the other. They could imply shared feeling towards one another. A lot is conveyed by this experience about Arun.

There are several literary techniques in this passage and Desai uses them all to characterize Arun’s experience. The diction used is intertwined with the tone throughout the passage and the setting allows the author to create a character through indirect characterization.