Language

Style of writing

The language of “Loose Change” by Andrea Levy is fairly simple and occasionally humorous. 

Humour is used when the narrator first describes the physical traits of Laylor to us:

She had wide black eyes and a round face with such a solid jaw line that she looked to have taken a gentle whack from Tom and Jerry's cartoon frying pan. She dug into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a bulging handful of money. It was coppers mostly. Some of it tinkled on to the floor. (p. 1, ll. 19-23)

Laylor is described as masculine, and the image of the Tom and Jerry frying pan is humorous. However, the more we get to know the narrator and realise that she does not sympathise with Laylor at all, the less humorous her descriptions seem. In fact, this type of humour seems u...