Unseen Commentary
The extract taken from The Loom by R. L. Sasaki opens with a simple yet effective quote “ “I give up” said Jo”. From this short sentence we are able to deduce many things about the structure of the novel; firstly that it is a third person narrative and secondly that it is written in past tense. The quote itself – “I give up” – creates an immediate effect on the reader; the short sentence has a dramatic effect as it is ambiguous and intriguing – what is the character giving up on? It also brings into play a character, named Jo, who is this character? What is his/her purpose? All these questions are illustrated in the reader’s mind generating a sense of curiosity, pushing the reader to read on. This simple opening is followed by another quote “We seem to lose ground every time. We dig her out, then she crawls back in, only deeper”. In this quote we can examine that there is a pronoun change from the first quote, the writer uses “we” instead of “I” - this establishes that there is more than one character involved which further fuels the interest of the reader. At first, the line “We dig her out, then she crawls back in, only deeper” seems to be a literal description, however, upon further examination of the following sentence “…in which her mother seemed to have taken refuge” we can see that it is actually a metaphor for the behavior of their mother.
The second paragraph states “Linda loyally and staunchly defended the fortress in which her mother seemed to have taken refuge”. The metaphor “defended the fortress” is consistent with a metaphor used in the previous sentence “lose ground”, these both are battle metaphors which create a motif, emphasizing conflicting opinions between Jo and Linda. From the opening three, very short paragraphs we can easily establish the personalities of Jo and Linda. “Linda loyally and staunchly” is an effective alliteration which emphasizes the Linda’s qualities. The soft sounding “L” is repeated which accentuates loyalty as a positive trait. While on the other hand, Jo is more aggressive and insensitive towards her mother. She is the one giving up, and wanting to “break through”. She even suggests methods which are “like shock treatment” a simile which portrays Jo’s insensitivity as “shock treatment” is an immoral torture method involving electric shocks as a negative stimulus. Sharon, the middle daughter, is introduced next using yet again, a simple, short sentence. “Sharon, the middle daughter, gave her mother a loom” this straightforward sentence involves an action – Sharon giving her mother an object – this acts as an agent for change. The other daughters have only discussed about what they should do, while Sharon actually took action. This sentence alone is enough to portray Sharon as the daughter who is caring and takes action.
