Use of Language Techniques: Examples from ‘Big World’ in The Turning

Term / Definition / Example and explanation / Idea that is expressed about Journey (or alternative example and explanation).
Connotation / The associated ideas or feelings that a word or phrase has. / The use of the word “horizon” (p.2) connotes our cultural understandings of the horizon being the limit of our journey, thus the journey is limitless and likewise the future and all its attendant opportunities.
Contrast (you could reference juxtaposition) / When two things that have very different qualities or associations are described together. / Winton emphasises the lack of future and opportunities for Biggie and the protagonist through the juxtaposition of the connotations of the word “horizon”, and locating it around the protagonists’ ears (p2).
Direct speech / Dialogue or extracts of conversation that are placed within a prose text. / The absence of direct speech brings a liminal quality to the writing whereby the boundary between the narrator and character is blurred and ownership of the voice that is speaking is not made explicit. This creates the effect of “thinking” with the character and aligns the reader very closely with the character’s own personality. Furthermore the absence of a name for the protagonist further enhances this alignment.
Emotive language / The use of words or phrases that arouse a particular feeling in the reader. The composer uses them to elicit this effect / “Some days I can see me and Biggie out there as old codgers, anchored to the friggin place, stuck there forever.” The use of “anchored”, “friggin place” and “stuck forever” highlights the perspective of the character as seeing Angelus as a place that you get stuck in. The tone is negative. The protagonist perceives Angelus as a town that can offer him nothing.
Hyperbole / Extreme exaggeration for effect of emphasis. / “Until that moment I was disappearing” (p. 8). By drawing on the implications of disappearing into nothingness, Winton emphasises the almost total loss of self experienced by the protagonist in his misery.
Incongruence / When something is said or done that appears in contrast to the subject matter. / “to be honest he’s not really my sort of bloke at all, but somehow he’s my best mate” (p.4)
Irony / When someone says or does something that has the opposite meaning to its intention. / We see irony in the protagonist’s return to Angelus to re-sit his exams after all the emphasis on his “dreams of the big world beyond” (p.6) and “escaping”(p.2) from Angelus.
Linear and non-linear structure / Linear structure is the arrangement of events of chronological order in the narrative. Non-linear structure refers to the arrangement of events not in chronological order. Flashback or cyclical structures are types of non-linear narratives.
Metaphor / A comparison between two things when one thing is described as another thing. / Winton uses the metaphor of “the horizon around our ears” to illustrate the apparent lack of a successful or meaningful future for Biggie and “I” (p.2).
Personification / A type of metaphor in which an inanimate object or concept is given human qualities. / Winton uses personification viz. “…the burning kite consumed its own tail” (p. 12), to undermine the protagonist’s sense of “power and promise” (p.12) that had been aligned with the beauty of the kite “looping and spiralling … against the night sky”.
Repetition / Refers to the use of a word, sound or phrase used more than once in close proximity for effect or emphasis. / “We’ve reached a world where … nobody knows us and nobody cares” (p. 4). The repetition of nobody emphasises the sense of freedom the protagonist feels on his initial escape from Angelus and furthermore that freedom meant anonymity.
Rhetorical questions / Questions posed to a person, oneself or the audience without requiring or expecting a response. / “is there anything sexier than a mango?” (p.8)
Simile / A comparison between two things using as or like. / “A long long kiss, deep and playful as a conversation” (p.10).
The use of this simile emphasises the naturalness of the interaction with the girl of his fantasies, that the kiss is fun, friendly, easy but also intimate.
Symbolism / The use of an object (inanimate or animate) to represent something else. Often it is a tangible object that stands for an intangible idea. / Winton depicts the kite, which ordinarily will fly as long as there is wind, as burning and eventually “consumes” (p.12) itself. The kite is carrying with it its own destruction, its own failure to fly and is symbolic of the path of escape that Biggie and the protagonist undertake.
Tone and mood (attitude) / The tone is the feeling that the author demonstrates toward his/ her subject matter. The mood is the feeling that is aroused in the responder by the description of a particular thing, place, person, or event. / “The southern sky presses down and beaches and bays turn the colour of dirty tin” (p.1). Winton is simultaneously describing the environment and the mood of the protagonist. The “sky press[ing] down” signals the protagonist’s perspective of being trapped and suggests this feeling of being trapped carries a heavy emotional weight for the protagonist. “Dirty tin” carries the implications of grotty and cheap, thereby emphasising the unpleasantness of the place he is feeling trapped in.