Through this passage also presented to theme of brother rivalry. Since Prentice brother hooks up with Varity. Banks is trying to shows us that there is always a sense of competition between brothers. Also to show us jealousy between brothers, since Prentice is very jealous of his brother, jealous that he is more handsome and can get more girls, especially get the girl he loves. And also to show us that older brother are always the luckiest and more power than smaller. Thus banks includes this passage to display how competition and jealousy between brothers as the main and normal problems adolescents experience in their first love.
Throughout the passage we perfectly understand Prentice love experience, we know how he feels and reacts. The fact that we understand Prentice and his emotional feelings makes him a realistic character, a person just like us, that the readers admire and get close to. To make Prentice even a more realistic character Banks makes him narrate in his dialect Scottish language. For example he says "I'd conked out some time before everybody else” and he calls shoes “Docs”. Prentice is also seen as a practical and amusing character when he says bad words. In the passage he says, “I felt like shit” and at the end of the passage he says, “Fuck it”. The use of bad words also makes young readers interested to read on since they find it “cool”.
When Prentice shares with us his heartrending love experience the tone is very depressing. However Iain Banks does not want to make the story sober so he includes some comedic lines which make it more joyous for the readers. The comedic lines are seen when Prentice asks the girls what he should do to forget about Varity, and one of them answers “you must think of her on the toilet.” The answer makes the readers have a laugh and thus makes the book’s tone joyful. Usually Banks uses black humor but his time he just includes a comedic line to make the passage more cheerful but also used to make sure the readers do not get bored and get attached to the book.
Through this passage we are not only offered comedic lines but also lines of writing representing Banks use of diction and descriptive details. In the passage Banks presents remarkable descriptive details in order to give the readers a clear depiction of the events. In the beginning of the passage Prentice is taking an early walk in the hills. Through Prentice, Iain uses descriptive details, describing how “the day was fabulous; clear and cold, the sky crystal blue and reflecting in the waters of the hill-cupped lochans and the glinting length of Loch Add.” Iain Banks uses all these striking visual details and meticulous description to permit the readers to have a better image of where Prentice. The image of how the sky was clear with absolutely no clouds it was so clear that it bright and clear blue reflected in the water falls up in the hill. The image is very romantic scenery, makes the atmosphere seem calm far from population, lonely. Which actually fits Prentice state of mind since he is lost and needs time to forget about Varity, so he wants to stay away from the pubs and the city just wants to relax and forget everything about life.
Banks goes on even further and gives the hill and sky wonderful characteristics. He shares with us how “on such days the hills hold a mixture of azure and gold never seen at any other time of year; the cobaly sky is more intense than it ever is in summer, and the straw-colored hills shine strong in the light from the low winter sun.” He adds these characteristics to enhance the passage and writing style. It gives the passage a joyful and bright mood. But why does banks give the passage a bright mood when Prentice state of mind is depressing he should have made the atmosphere dark just like Prentice sate of mind. However Banks want to include this happy and bright mood to not keep the readers all sad and depressed and feel pity for Prentice. We should know that Prentice does not feel good and is lost but he does not want the readers to feel all pitiful and depressed want them to have good and joyful time reading the book.
Not only is diction used to enhance the passage but also concrete language. Personification and similes are used in order to. Give enchanting content of imagination to readers. When describing the water up in the hills that go down the spillways he uses a personification. He gives water a human characteristic by describing it as “Marching water” hard to imagine stamping water. In addition, he also uses similes in the passage. For example, he says the girl he loved wrapped herself round his older brother “like Clingfilm around a sandwich.” This simile is kind of humorous if it can be imaged, seems weird when imagined. But since it is weird it makes it pleasing and fun to imagine. He also uses a simile to compare the noise of water to stamping feet, he says “The water cascaded down the face of the spillway again, the noise like a million stamping feet heard from a long way off.” Through this simile we have to use are sense of auditory.
In conclusion, the analyzed passage displays points on brother rivalry and love while in the same time displaying Banks remarkable use of personification, diction, senses, and comedy. This passage is much like other passages in the book because through out the story Iain Banks uses remarkable visual details to give the readers a perfect image of the situation Prentice is in. throughout the novel Banks makes the tone and mood of the book more cheerful, even though the characters are in a dark and sad state of mind, he does this and make sure the readers are not bored and are still attached to the book.
