Live with lightning (text analysis) (5 курс)

Live with lightning

The author of the extract under analysis is Mitchell Wilson. He was an American novelist and physicist. Before becoming a writer Wilson was a research scientist and instructor in Physics at the University level. Science, invention and the ethnical problems of modern atomic science are the subject for some of his works. He also wrote non-fiction on scientific matters for the general reader. At the height of the Cold War, he was considered a major novelist in the Soviet Union, while in his native United Sates his reputation was considerable less elevated. His novels include Live with Lightning, Meeting at a Far Meridian, My Brother, My Enemy.

The text under consideration running under the title Live with Lightning is a abridge abstract taken from a novel. The title of the story is a sentence, a piece of advice rather. It reveals its subject matter, but it is only when we have read the whole story we’ll understand what underlies the title.

The story is told from the point of view of the author – it is a third person narrative with the dialogues of the personages.

The scene of the extract takes place in Professor Earle Fox’s office. He is sitting in his swirel chair, surrounded with the portraits of Newton, Leibniz, Faraday, postponing every possible meeting, ignoring his calls and roaming unhappily about his inner emptiness. He realizes that he was out of love with his science. He also realizes that his life is to be praised because of his achievements. Earle Fox feels sad and disappointed when Erik Gorin enters his office. They have a small talk covering all the things and details that are important for Erik being the new assistant.

The form of speech of the text under analysis is prevailingly indirect. However, the author employs both the samples of direct and indirect speech.

Direct e.g.: “Have him come in, please”;

Indirect e.g.: His office was in the southwest corner of the twelfth floor of the Physics Building.

The character drawing is of a mixture type.

Direct e.g.: Erik Gorin was a little above middle height, slender, and wearing not very good clothes.

Indirect e.g.: Don’t be impressed by me, Fox wanted to say, I just wish to God that I were you.

The extract acquaints us with two main personages. They are Professor Earle Fox and Erik Gorin. The first character is Professor Earl Fox. He is fifty four year old chairman, a scientist, a professor of Physics. He feels timeless and ancient. He was out of love with his science after 27 years of research. He is clever and intelligent and disappointed at the same time, Earle Fox was unhappy. He realized that his wife is to credit for his achievements. Additionally, he feels empty inside as he is no more interested in his field of study. On the contrary, we have the second character, Erik Gorin which is opposite to Mr. Fox: he is young, with living eyes, ready to set the world on fire, eager to set the world on fire.

Since the text under consideration presents a story it belongs to belles-letter style, emotive prose substyle.

The extract is told in a mixture type of speech. The types of speech have peculiarities at each language level.

I. WRITTEN

1. On the level of phonetics (full forms of modal and auxiliary verbs): e.g. Realization had come slowly;

2. On the morphological level (past tense forms): e.g. (past simple) “He frowned” (expressing the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past); (past continuous) e.g. “He was listening to a paper being read”; (past perfect) Realization had come slowly;

3. On the syntactic level (long, compound, complex sentences)

4. On the lexical level: neutral words (office, secretary, life, man); bookish and learnt words (ponder, electricity, thermodynamics);

II. SPOKEN

1. On the level of phonetics (contracted forms) “I’ll have plenty of time”;

2. On the morphological level (present and future forms): (simple present) “We’re good you are here”; (present perfect) “I’ve come with perfect recommendations”; (simple future) “I’ll have plenty of time”; (future continuous) “I’ll be teaching freshman physics lab”;

3. On the syntactic level (short, simple sentences) “Have him come in please”

4. On the lexical level (neutral words) see, know, time, mind (colloquial) damn, anyhow;

As far as the text is devoted to describe a professor of physics and his assistant, there are many words in the story that help the author to enclose the theme.

Physics – the science concerned with the study if physical objects and natural substances and natural forces such as light, heat etc.

I believe that all the words in the text are equally important but there are some that contribute more to the purpose and are worth to be analyzed deeper. I would like to proceed with the analysis of the words credit and ignore.

Expressive mean and stylistic devices: 1. buzzing signal – onomatopoeia 2. to the outside world he flood in – metonymy 3. thousandth time – hyperbole 4. the panels held – personification 5. stared blindly – oxymoron 6. felt timeless and ancient – hyperbole 7. with a small explosion – metaphor 8. curiousity was dead – personification 9. diffuse sadness – epithet