Коломийцева Юля 1 англ. маг.

“The Wish”

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was born in Great Britain, though his parents were
Norwegian. During the Second World War he was a fighter pilot, and was sent to
Washington, where he started writing short stories. Dahl's writing career was
extraordinary in that he was famous for writing both for adults and for children.
His books for children are distinguished by the fact that they include really
unpleasant characters. His short stories for adults, in collections such as "Кiss
Kiss", "Switch Bitch" and "Someone Like You", are notable for their "blackness"
as well as "the sting in the tail" or the "twist" at the end of the story: a very
unexpected development which takes the reader by surprise. He also wrote two
volumes of autobiography, "Вoy" and "Going Solo".

“The Wish” is a short story which is focused on the inner world of a little boy. The
story tells about his dangerous adventure through three colors of the carpet. The
boy fights with his fears trying to accomplish his challenge. However, at the end of
the story he falls touching the black color and gives a piercing cry.

The short story belongs to the emotive prose and as such represents the belles-
lettres functional style, the main aim of which is to give reader aesthetic pleasure,
to make them think and to entertain by appealing to their emotions. It is worth
mentioning that this story is a psychological one. It shows the boy’s inner world.

One of the peculiarities of the analyzed text is that it starts with the implication of
precedence. The personal pronoun he and the definite article the combined with
the noun child can be suggestive of it. Such beginning is aimed to excite the
readers’ interest, to urge them to read on. The next component of the structure is
complication. The following abstract presents it: “He had never really noticed it
before, but now, all of a sudden the colours seemed to brighten mysteriously and
spring out at him in a most dazzling way.”. In this line we can observe a conflict of
the story between the main character and the carpet symbolizing his fears. The
epithets mysteriously and dazzling show that something unordinary is going to
happen. Then, there occurs the development of actions which leads to the climax
of the story. The following abstract is considered as the culmination: “It wasn't
touching the black, he could see it wasn't touching, he could see the small line of
yellow separating the toe of his sandal from the black; but the snake stirred as
though sensing his nearness, and raised its head and gazed at the foot with bright
beady eyes, watching to see if it was going to touch. "I'm not touching you! You
mustn't bite me! You know I'm not touching you!"” So, in the given abstract we can
observe the highest point of boy ’s emotions. The fear completely captured him.
The author implies various stylistic devices to describe his excited state. For
example, Dahl alliteration for 2 times. In the first case, he repeats snake’s hissing
showing its nearness. The boy’s imagination creates vividly the image of the snake
as it was the most dangerous creature for him. Moreover, the boy for the first time
says out loud. Also, his speech is in italics showing the desperate condition of a
boy. The author always uses framing repetition to show how excited his personage
was. Then, there appears the denouement of the story: “He was going over to the
right, quite slowly he was going over, then faster and faster, and at the last
moment, instinctively he put out a hand to break the fall and the next thing he saw
was this bare hand of his going right into the middle of a great glistening mass of
black and he gave one piercing cry as it touched.” At this very moment the reader
understands that the boy loses the battle. As the denouement is present we can
conclude that the analyzed short story has a closed plot structure.

In the given short-story we can observe three temporal planes. The simultaneous
plane, which is predominant in this text, is represented both by lexical and
grammatical markers. The grammatical markers are the use of the Past Simple
(became, thought, picked up), the Past Perfect (had completed), the Past
Continuous (was holding, was standing, was going), the modality (couldn’t
follow). The indirect lexical markers are the always, before, now, all the time. The
retrospective temporal plane is also presented by lexical and grammatical
markers. The grammatical markers are the use of the Past Perfect (he had noticed).
The direct lexical markers of the retrospective temporal plane are yesterday, last
Easter. The prospective temporal plane is also presented with the help of lexical
and grammatical markers. The grammatical markers are the usage of modals
(could it be done), the usage of the Future Simple (I will be given). The direct
lexical markers are (tommorow).

In the given short story, we deal both with the closed space and with the open
space. The actions described take place in England, Yorkshire. The direct lexical
marker Piper Wood can be suggestive of it. Also, such indirect lexical marker as
outside in the sunshine, far away behind the house we refer to the open space. The
closed space is presented to due to the following lexical markers the hall from the
stairs, the front door, a carpet. As for the open space we observe the following
lexical markers stable, summer-house, outside the sunshine, behind the house.

In the analyzed story we deal with two characters the boy and his mother. The boy
is the main character and the mother is the secondary one.

It is necessary to dwell upon the character of the mother. The reader gets to know
about her only in the last sentence: “Outside in the sunshine, far away behind the
house, the mother was looking for her son.” So, the introduction pf this character
plays an important role, because the mother in the sunshine symbolizes the real
world juxtaposing to the inner world of a boy. The author uses here the SD of
inversion where the word sunshine symbolizes hope.

The boy is a protagonist of a short story. The boy is one that readers can easily
relate, remembering their childish adventures. The boy appears to be very simple-
minded with the attention he places upon a scab, but it is in seeing everything
presented to him as a challenge. The little boy is extremely brave, but this courage
comes only from understanding the fear that lies ahead of him. In truth, the little
boy is actually wise beyond his years. “This was not a journey to be undertaken
lightly; the risks were far to great for that...The mere thought of snakes sent a fine
electricity of fear running like pins down the backs of his legs and under the soles
of his feet,” it is how Dahl writes the little boy viewing the challenge before him.
Readers are reminded by the innocence of the child when he reacts harshly to the
snakes he is picturing in the black carpet. “I’m not touching you! You mustn’t bite
me! You know I’m not touching you!” yet based on the boy’s deep fear of snakes, it
is no surprise to imagine him at the point of hysterics. The boy’s innocence is key
in understanding the terrors he faces is a product of his own doing, his own
imagination in this instance. However, this reflects how Dahl typically inserts
comments about human nature into his piece, as many people fall into traps that
result from their own doing.

One of the peculiarities of the analyzed text is the usage of author’s narrative
proper, which means that the narration is carried out from the 3rd person singular,
from the omniscient anonymous narrator. Also, the author frequently uses
represented-inner speech to show the boy’s inner world, his reactions to the events,
his feelings and so on. The examples of represented inner speech are “Yes, he
thought, I will pick it off, even if it isn't ready, even if the middle of it sticks, even if
it hurts like anything.”, “This was not a journey to be undertaken lightly; the risks
were far too great for that.”

As for the narrative compositional forms narrative proper and portrait are used in
the text. Narrative proper presents the unfolding of the text. With the narrative
compositional form portrait, the reader is able to imagine the boy’s appearance:
“The child's face—a fringe of white-gold hair, two large blue eyes, a small pointed
chin peered down anxiously over the banisters.”

As for the stylistic devices all levels are foregrounded. The phono-graphical level
is exploited by the examples of alliteration “but the snake stirred as though
sensing his nearness” “bright beady eyes”, In the first case, the author repeats
snake’s hissing showing its nearness. In the second case, it adds to the atmosphere
of boy’s fear. The boy’s imagination creates vividly the image of the snake as it
was the most dangerous creature for him. Also, the author uses italics as a SD “I'm
not touching you! You mustn't bite me! You know I'm not touching you!”; “them”
while speaking about the snakes. So, we can make a conclusion that his speech
shows the boy’s fears.

Morphemic level is also foregrounded by the author. For example, “he stood there
resting, hesitating, waiting, wishing he could stay for ever on this big safe yellow
island”; “He strained and pulled and jerked his body,”; “Parts of it were stirring
now, and uncoiling and beginning to shine with a dreadfully oily glister”. Due to
repetition of suffixes and prefixes the writer tries to grab reader’s attention.

On the lexical level there is abundance of epithets such as interesting,enourmous,

tremendous, big, dazling. It is interesting that the author implies a lot of epithets
while speaking about the carpet, because it became a sphere of boy’s interests.
There are a few examples of SD of metaphor (personification) such as (The
narrow channel of yellow ran forward unbroken; a fine electricity of fear running
like pins combined with simile). Also, there is an example of synecdoche “His
bright oval face was curiously intent.” Also, we observe the hyperbole extremely
unhappy. All these SDs play an important role in characterization of protagonist
and his inner fight with his fears.

The SDs on the syntactical level are the most frequent. We can observe parallel
constructions: “Don’t touch me; don’t come near me.” “He came slowly down the
stairs and advanced to the edge of the carpet. He extended one small sandalled
foot and placed it cautiously upon a patch of yellow.” The SD devices such as
detachment and attachment are numerous. The following examples are
detachments: “windmill fashion”; “arms out sideways”, “but now”, “a fringe of
white-gold hair, two large blue eyes” The following examples are attachments:
“Except for the snakes”, “Also, there are several examples of inversions:
“UNDER the palm of one hand the child”, “With a fingernail he began”, “Half
across he began to wobble”. There are examples of asyndeton: “there resting,
hesitating, waiting, wishing” and polysyndeton ““He strained and pulled and
jerked his body”.
While speaking about the vocabulary, we distinguish between neutral and
colloquial vocabulary. The examples of colloquial are pick off, pick up, do the
splits. The thematic vocabulary of the short story is a carpet, red, black and yellow.
It is necessary to add that the colors acquire symbolic meanings (red- fire, blood,
black- death,evil, mystery, yellow- hope, happiness, sunshine.) As for the key
words they are fear, challenge. These words reveal the author’s message set the
readers to imagine their own irrational fears and the instinctive reaction they have
towards them.