Language

The language of the short story “Paradise” by Matthew Kneale is conversational and easy to follow. The choice of words is related to Nepalese culture and landscape, including many descriptions of the setting. These descriptions create imagery, as readers are able to form mental images of where the characters are, such as in the following two examples:

A glimmer of light beneath the door was the only evidence that the day had begun. The room was without windows as they let out heat at night, and up here at twelve thousand feet all available warmth was needed. (ll. 6-9);

The settlement clung to a steep slope. Below, the land fell away dizzyingly into the main valley. Above, it stepped into a sharply pointed snowpeak, like a yak’s horn. (ll. 65-67)

The story is conveyed using the narrative mode and the dialogue mode. The narrative passages convey the action and the main character’s perspective. The dialogues reveal the other characters’ perspective and the conflict between two different cultures with different perspectives on the same events. 

Similes, repetitions, rhetorical questions, and symbols help construct and convey deeper meanings.

Similes

The similes used in the text help describe the characters and the setting as seen through the main character’s perspective.

For Neville, the landscape of the village is “Like a painting” (l. 12), a simile that suggests perfection and conveys how impressed Neville is with the small village. It also suggests that Neville is not aware of what the village is really like, as he idealises it.

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