The Signalman’ and The Return of the Native

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                        Wider Reading Assignment.

           My task is to compare and contrast two different pieces of text. I’ll compare them to see how texts from various centuries, can differ. While comparing them, it would be interesting to look at the following sections; opening, theme and setting. Although they are from different centuries there will be similarities and differences.

              The opening for ‘The Signalman’ is gloomy. The word that gives me this idea is ‘oozing’. Also he describes the stone as ‘clammy’. The reader enters the story as if it’s already started; the reader has no background information for the story. Back in the Victorian times because there were no televisions, stories were the only source of entertainment. They came out in weekly / monthly instalments, so this might be an episode in a series. This could be one reason for no background information. The traveller is walking in the countryside, and comes across the signal box. He shouts down to the signalman ‘Hallo down there’. The signalman doesn’t look up to where the traveller is standing, but down the track into the tunnel. This strikes me as strange, because you would expect the signalman to look up towards the hill where the traveller is. The opening for ‘The Return of The Native’ is completely different. The native is also in a car which is different to ‘The Signalman’. The native describes his drive as ‘marvellous’ and the road as ‘unspoilt’. This means that no J C B’s have ripped the road apart, it’s still pleasant and with all its turns in their original state. It’s also cheerful. Unlike ‘The Signalman’ the reader has some background information into ‘The Return of The Native’. We know the reason the ‘old woman’ is throwing boulders at the native is because of his ancestors, killing people they believed were witches.

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               ‘The Signalman’ is a pre - 20th century piece of text. I think that this story is pre - 20th century because of the way the traveller is treated by the signalman. He greets him with either ‘sir’ or ‘gentleman’. This is mainly to do with the class / status of people in the Victorian period. They used flags to communicate between the signal box and the railway station. There are words that are also no longer used nowadays, this also dates the text.

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