Language

Style of language

The short story “Hemi’s Gift” by TJ Corrigan is written in an informal style of writing. 

The narration uses contractions and colloquial spellings such as “oughta” (l. 79) instead of “ought to” or “ciggie” (l. 67) instead of “cigarette”, expressing the casual inner monologue of the narrator. Most notably, the story includes a lot of slang and terminology specific to Māori culture which signifies the heritage of the narrator and is one of the main themes of the story. Examples of this include “tangi ” (l. 6) , “Pakeha” (l. 23) , or “horis” (l. 88) .

Short or fragmented sentences interrupted by interjections - “I’ve left them on the fridge in my dorm… right on top of… ahh, my wallet!” (ll. 65-66) - also help express the authentic thoughts of the narrator and make the narration more dynamic and engaging. 

Negative words are used to describe Hemi’s appearance and belongings: “battered brown bag […] ancient guitar […] old, sloppy clothes […] His hair has an overgrown, wild look, like unmown grass” (ll. 11-13). Once the narrator gets to know Hemi, however, she uses positive adjectives to describe him. For example, the narrator says she is “...