'In the Snack-bar' - Evaluation.

Authors Avatar

‘In the Snack-bar’  

Evaluation by Amy Naumann

        Recently in class we have been studying ‘In the Snack-bar’ by Edwin Morgan.  In this essay I will be discussing the various literary techniques and language the poet uses to bring across the misery of old age.

        The poem is about someone helping an old man to the toilet in a snack bar.  The old man’s severe disability turns the seemingly simple task into a quest where everyday objects become problematic obstacles and each step takes a lifetime.  The old man’s helplessness makes the poet philosophical about old age, disability and the very nature of life.    

        ‘In the Snack-Bar’ is probably set in Scotland as that is where the poet is from, and also because it is wet in the summer, ‘these rains of August’, as it often is in Scotland.  It sounds like it is in a large city such as Glasgow as it’s a ‘crowded’ snack bar.  It is most likely to be set in the last thirty years, as before then coffee machines would not have been commonplace.

        The narrator is the man taking the old man to the toilet.  We can tell this from phrases such as ‘I take his arm’ and ‘I put his right arm on the stick’.  This narrative style is effective as it allows the reader to feel more as if they are in the situation.

Join now!

        One way the poet brings across the old man’s helplessness is through visual imagery.  One simile is ‘Like a monstrous animal caught in a tent’.  This gives the impression that the old man is huge and to be feared, as if he were caught out of his surroundings where he is not comfortable.  It also makes it sound like everyone would be staring at him as if he was in a freak show.  

Another simile is ‘A few yards of floor are like a landscape’.  This emphasises the point that every step for the old man is a huge ...

This is a preview of the whole essay