One Stair Up” by Campbell Nairne Essay Example

One Stair Up† by Campbell Nairne Paper Essay A â€Å"One stair up† by Campbell Nairne The fragment describes how two youngsters, representatives of the working class, Rosa and Andrew, went to the cinema. We see them in the hall of the cinema, after that observe them in the showing room. There is relatively little action in this story. The author’s attention is mainly focused on the details, so that we could see, smell and feel everything that surrounds the main characters. The text can be described as partially narrative and partially descriptive. The exposition is rather long. The author’s aim is to plunge us into the atmosphere of the luxurious salon: we can even hear the â€Å"soft whirring of fans† and â€Å"a cup grate on a saucer†, feel the â€Å"hot darkness† and draw a realistic image of the showing room. The complication begins with the Rosa’s question â€Å"This a comedy? † Now our attention is fully devoted to the leading characters, depicted skillfully by the author. Campbell Nairne reveals the nature of his characters through actions, details, dialogues, and, mostly, through showing their thoughts. He uses interior monologues to build up the thought patterns of both the main characters. We will write a custom essay sample on One Stair Up† by Campbell Nairne specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on One Stair Up† by Campbell Nairne specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on One Stair Up† by Campbell Nairne specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The tension grows as we â€Å"hear† what Rosa thinks of Andrew, because her thoughts come in strong contradiction to his ones. The culmination takes place when Andrew breaks out, â€Å"forgetful in his excitement†. Full of delight, he wants to share his impressions with Rosa, but meets only cold misunderstanding. He starts making excuses to her, looking abject and miserable. The denouement lies in the sharp answer of Rosa. The elements of the plot are ordered chronologically, the story ends on the sour note, but the end of the story is not clear-cut and conclusive. It gives the reader much room for suggestion, forces himher to fancy a possible reaction of the young man and the further development of the relationships between Rosa and Andrew. The plot is of minor importance in this story, if we compare it with the work of mind, feelings and emotions. We pay attention to what the characters think rather than to what they do. The author speaks first in his own voice and presents events in the third person singular, but there are moments when we realize that the author’s words are substituted by interior monologues of the youngsters. Nairne uses such a device to make his story a remarkable insight into human character. What is also characteristic of the story is that we cannot fully trust the narrator’s judgment, as he sometimes speaks with irony. A vivid example of it is the description of the forthcoming attraction â€Å"Mothers of Broadway†. The author mixes the quotations from an advertisement with his own remarks, which are even more swelling and exaggerative than the advertisement itself. He says â€Å"The film seemed to have smashed all records†, and we have to doubt deeply, whether he is speaking frankly. Next to this pompous review of the film Andrew’s comment follows: â€Å"Not much good, I expect†. Here we can observe a complete change in the point of view, and, accordingly, in the atmosphere. The mask seems to have been removed, and the emphasis in the episode turns great. Now let us examine the characters in details. Except for the main ones, Andrew and Rosa, we also meet â€Å"a trim girl in a chocolate uniform with blue pipings’, which ‘silently emerged, glanced at the tickets and admitted them†. The author pays attention only to her appearance and actions. On the contrary, we find nothing about the look of the main characters. And it’s not by chance: in this particular fragment their look has no significance. We explore only their inner world, knowing nothing about the outer, and it doesn’t prevent the characters from being round and full-blooded. They are fully believable, and as in real life, sometimes act inconsistently. In the best way it can be seen in the ending of the story, when Rosa’s retort â€Å"was uttered before she had command of it†. Another example concerns Andrew: he promised himself he would keep silent during the film, because Rosa had forbidden him to talk to her in a cinema. After that he broke the promise and it led to their tiff. The two heroes are faced with the problem of misunderstanding; moreover, an inner conflict, associated with Rose’s inner world, domineers from the very beginning of the story. â€Å"It pleased her to be seen in the dress circle, even with Andrew†. The detachment â€Å"even with Andrew† shows us that she doesn’t enjoy his company. Finally, her attitude to him is voiced in her thoughts: she supposed him to be stupid, just â€Å"a big hulking kid† and looked at him with contempt. Her irritation grew and the inner conflict turned into an external one. The roots of the conflict between the characters lie in their different attitude to things, different tempers and motivations, and particularly, in their attitude to cinema. Rosa’s attitude is much more serious than that of Andrew. For him it was just a sort of fun. He was going to â€Å"enjoy himselfâ€Å", and nothing more. But for Rosa it was a way to go one stair up in the world, may be even the means of self-development. Moreover, it was not by chance that she â€Å"surveyed the dim amphitheatre in the hope of recognizing some of her acquaintances†. She wanted to be seen in the dress circle and to keep the track of events. The title of the story is a suggestive one. It helps us to single out the main idea of the story: some people are not content to live in obscurity, and their aim is to go one stair up in the world by any means. Now let us see what helps this story to affect our feelings so deeply†¦ In the given fragment the author uses a wide range of stylistic devices. Here are examples of epithets (â€Å"voluptuous (stillness)†, â€Å"rapid-fire (drama)†, â€Å"soft (whirring)†, â€Å"hot (darkness)†), metaphors (â€Å"a shower of stars†, â€Å"a shaft of white light†), metonymy â€Å"young bloods†, simile (â€Å"a carpet that yielded like springing turf†). He also exploits ellipsis â€Å"This a comedy? †, â€Å"You see all right? † to imitate the colloquial language and to show the low education level of the speakers. To render the peculiarities of the thought stream, he uses simple syntactical constructions, many one-member nominative sentences (â€Å"Custards all over the place†, â€Å"Oh, yes, a stick of dynamite. ), rhetorical questions (â€Å"Where was it going to put that? †), exclamatory sentences (â€Å"Oh, this was good! †). Personification is used throughout the text (â€Å"pot-plants and palms leapt up†). The extract I thought — it was quite funny, you know — I mean, people laughed. I wasnt the only one. But if you dont like it — is especially remarkable. It sounds unconnected, the same idea is repeated twice (â€Å"I thought †¦ I mean†). The speech is interrupted: hesitation pauses are shown with the help of the dashes. Evidently, poor Andrew had a lack of words. Moreover, aposiopesis is used. All these expressive means show us how great was the extent of the boy’s confusion, and unwillingly the reader’s heart fills with sympathy for him. No doubt, he author has a fine and remarkable style, everything seems to reflect the feelings of the heroes, and as a result, the events emerge in our mind in the most realistic way. The reader is immersed deeply into the life of those two youngsters: we see, hear and feel the same as they do. We get access to their thoughts and judgments, we can easily put ourselves into their shoes. And we realize that there are so many Rosas and Andrews among us†¦

Free Essays on Sonny Blues

In James Baldwin’s 1957 Story, â€Å"Sonny Blues,† Which Character, The Narrator Or Sonny, Went Through The Most Significant Transformation In The Effort To Seek A Common Ground As Brothers? In James Baldwin’s story, Sonny Blues,† the narrator, Sonny’s brother, went through the most significant transformation in the effort to seek a common ground as brothers. The brothers faced many struggles, because Sonny was not able to express himself to the narrator. The narrator is the eldest and was given the charge by his mother before she died of protecting his brother Sonny. He unsure how to do this became more of disapproving father-figure than the understanding brother Sonny needed. Unfortunately for both communication had never been easy in their family. Sonny who has a love for music wants to be a musician and his brother laughs at him for it. He tries telling his brother what to do and that only pushes Sonny away. Being eight years older, the narrator never really understood Sonny’s obsession for music and its importance to him. The difference in age contributed to a difference in opinion on what was right for Sonny. Neither brother seemed to know how to handle their own feelings, the situation between them worsened. When the elder brother realized that he could not get sonny to conform to his ideas of what was right, and Sonny felt that his dreams were not being taken seriously by his brother, the brothers had grown further apart, and had nearly given up on each other. Sonny had fallen victim to drugs and was arrested. Painfully the narrator finds out about this in the newspaper. Despite the narrators suspicions and obviousness of the fact it was to hard for him to conceive. He felt guilty that he had let down his promise to his mother. After Sonny’s rehabilitation the two finally started making up for lost time. I believe the healing in the... Free Essays on Sonny Blues Free Essays on Sonny Blues In James Baldwin’s 1957 Story, â€Å"Sonny Blues,† Which Character, The Narrator Or Sonny, Went Through The Most Significant Transformation In The Effort To Seek A Common Ground As Brothers? In James Baldwin’s story, Sonny Blues,† the narrator, Sonny’s brother, went through the most significant transformation in the effort to seek a common ground as brothers. The brothers faced many struggles, because Sonny was not able to express himself to the narrator. The narrator is the eldest and was given the charge by his mother before she died of protecting his brother Sonny. He unsure how to do this became more of disapproving father-figure than the understanding brother Sonny needed. Unfortunately for both communication had never been easy in their family. Sonny who has a love for music wants to be a musician and his brother laughs at him for it. He tries telling his brother what to do and that only pushes Sonny away. Being eight years older, the narrator never really understood Sonny’s obsession for music and its importance to him. The difference in age contributed to a difference in opinion on what was right for Sonny. Neither brother seemed to know how to handle their own feelings, the situation between them worsened. When the elder brother realized that he could not get sonny to conform to his ideas of what was right, and Sonny felt that his dreams were not being taken seriously by his brother, the brothers had grown further apart, and had nearly given up on each other. Sonny had fallen victim to drugs and was arrested. Painfully the narrator finds out about this in the newspaper. Despite the narrators suspicions and obviousness of the fact it was to hard for him to conceive. He felt guilty that he had let down his promise to his mother. After Sonny’s rehabilitation the two finally started making up for lost time. I believe the healing in the...

Segmentation and Targeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Segmentation and Targeting - Essay Example Starbuck has experienced tremendous growth since it was founded. Identify the company’s target market and positioning strategy The level of coffee consumption in the United States has been on a downward trend, especially in the late twentieth century. However, Starbuck has been quite cautious when choosing its target markets. A target market can simply be defined as a group of consumers who share the same interests that a particular company selects to serve. The process of choosing a target market can be undertaken by evaluating social, environmental, political, and competitive factors. Consumers bargaining power and entry barriers all fall under the category of market factors. The prices offered by Starbucks were extremely high and the company was trying to develop a new culture for its customers. Considering that Starbuck was very careful when it came to coffee production, the company managed to maintain a stable relationship with its suppliers hence, it faced minimal threat s and competition (Starbucks Corporation SWOT Analysis, 2008). Office employees with both middle and high revenue were the sole target for Starbuck. Schultz wanted Starbuck to be the place where people could meet and relax on their way home, after work and socialize with each other. Therefore, the company was aggressive in meeting the needs of the consumers. Great consideration was also placed on the arrangement of the store. Target market can be executed in various ways namely concentrated, distinguished and undistinguished (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004). The concentrated strategy focuses its efforts on a single market section and develops and maintains an exclusive approach for every section. The distinguished approach reaches out to the market by creating distinct products and promoting the programs for the various sections. The undistinguished strategy on the other targets the whole market using a single (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004). Starbuck adapted the undistinguished strategy to ma rket their products. The company measured the whole market as one single section. The main obstacle that Starbuck faced when it employed this strategy is the development of a brand that would satisfy the needs of all customers. Nevertheless, Starbuck did not compromise any of its services hence, they did everything they could in order to produce a quality product. A company must choose which position it wishes to occupy in the market after identifying its target. The positioning entails the way consumers define a particular product in terms of quality, size, price and performance and several other factors. Previously, Starbuck had been using transactional marketing where profit was obtained mainly from reserved customers who had a long-term relationship with the company. However, the customer retention approach aims at enchantment instead of consumer fulfillment. Starbuck later discovered that public opinion was a better approach. This kind of strategy takes a long time to thrive, t hough the benefits are worthwhile (Brassington & Pettit, 2000). How does their product line fit with their target market and positioning? Does it make sense? Starbuck began to create high quality products and services to its consumers. Schultz was aware of the fact that coffee is indeed perishable hence, he emphasized on the production of quality products by supervising each stage of coffee manufacture. Whole bean coffee was purchased from countries such as Kenyan and Ethiopia (Stanley, 2002). The coffee was then roasted and