The Birds by Daphne du Maurier: Commentary on a passage

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The Birds: Commentary on a passage

        The Birds, a short horror story written by Daphne du Maurier, which is based on the idea of birds, peaceful creatures, suddenly turning against humans. The main character, Nat Hocken, through who we see the whole story, which is set on a peninsula in England on 1952 shortly after the Second World War, is a war veteran and throughout the plot gets attacked several times, with confrontations intensifying each time. With these attacks the author gradually builds up suspense until it is highly suggested a total destruction is inevitable. Towards the end of the story the imagery, diction and sentence structure help the writer convey to its readers the effects that are created through the story and augment suspense, which are the sense of isolation and helplessness of the characters.

        

The passage is set shortly after Nat discovers that all his neighbours appear to be missing, which is a suggestion by the narrator that the birds killed them all, along with the pressure on Nat with only one hour left before the massive attack begins and finally the mentioning that he forgot to check the kitchen’s chimney. Interestingly, the author opts to let the reader know when to expect the attack of the birds and the weak spot on the house where the birds can come through, instead of making it a mystery, like any other horror story. These choices are made possibly to create even more suspense on the readers and leave no doubt to the readers that this will happen inevitably. The structure or order of the passage’s events reveal to the reader key points to deduce that the remaining characters will certainly die, focusing rather on how this will occur, slowly which helps build suspense and a sense of helplessness from the readers towards the characters.  

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The passage commences with a sense of hope, Nat apparently sees “…something grey and white…” the “Good old Navy” Nat reassuring himself says, however moments later realizes that in fact what he thought was his rescue is actually his nightmare, “ the massed flocks…rose…upwards in the sky.” These first lines in the passage suggest to the reader that any apparently good news that might come across will finally be revealed to be the contrary. The imagery and sentence structure make Nat feel defenceless against what seems to be an immense flock of birds, since it was compared to a ...

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