English Homework – 20 Marks
Refer the extract by Mayhew, taken from his novel paved with gold, published in 1855.
A student having read the text said: “The writer brings the different characters to life for the reader. It is as if you are standing on the street with them”
To what extent do you agree?
Mayhew uses the oxymoron “beggar babes” in the 5th paragraph, which emphasises the harsh reality that even the youngest members of this group have to beg in order to survive. The alliteration links the adjective to the noun which again further emphasises the harsh reality of the life of the lower classes within the extract. This powerful description of how the characters have to beg in order to scrape a meagre living enables the reader to better imagine the squalid conditions that these people live in.
In the fourth paragraph, Mayhew uses structure to his advantage by asyndetically listing individual descriptions of characters which creates unique identities for the characters, which helps bring the characters to life in the reader’s mind. This is further enhanced by the descriptions of the clothing of the characters; for example, “greasy garments”. Again, the use of alliteration here helps link the adjective and the very general noun which further emphasises the bad condition the character’s possessions are in currently in. “Garments” is a very general noun, which has connotations of ragged and worn clothing that would not be considered desirable. “Greasy” has connotations of poor quality food, which could be interpreted as suggesting that the only type of food these people can afford is of low quality due to their socioeconomic class within society. The lexis of the passage enables the reader to better imagine the character’s physical descriptions. However, this physical description does not extend to the personality of the characters which is not mentioned in the passage, hindering the character’s description as the reader cannot understand their mentalities.
