Analysis of a story: My First Drive

Analysis: My First Drive

During the Language class with our teacher Andrea .S we read a text called “My First Drive”, we analyzed it, and talk about the uses of certain elements, such as:

*Commas

*Hyphens

*Dialogue

*Adjectives

Moreover, we identify their uses and quote so as to support my argument

First of all the commas, we usually use them so as to separate clauses, for parenthesis, to separate items in lists, etc.

In this case the commas are being used so as to build TENSION or to DESCRIBE A SITUATION like for example:

“Spurred on by our shouts, the ancient sister began to increase the speed.”- BUILDING TENSION

“The ancient sister, never having been faced with a situation like this before, shouted ‘Help!’ - BUILDING TENSION + DESCRIBE A SITUATION

“You didn’t think I could do it, did you?” -  TO MAKE SURE THAT WHAT YOU SAID WAS OKEY

Secondly, we have the Hyphens, we usually use them to connect two words acting as one and which cannot exist meaningfully alone. IT WOULD BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT IF THE HYPHENS ARE NOT THERE.

Here are some examples:

“12-years-older-than-me-half-sister” – IS BEING INFORMAL (SLANG)

“Steering-wheel”

“Half-brother”

“Half-hour”

“Motor-car”

In the third place, we have Dialogue; some say that punctuating dialogue is more a matter of style than following the rules. And they're right, up to a point.

The novelist Cormac McCarthy, for example, doesn't use quotation marks. That's a deliberate stylistic choice and, for him, it works.

Some of the “Dialogue Rules” are:

·         Keep Punctuation Inside the Quotation Marks

·         Start a New Paragraph for a New Speaker

·         Omit Quotation Marks in a Long Speech

·         Use Quotation Marks According to Taste

·         Use Dashes and Ellipses Correctly

Now some examples of dialogue in the story are:

‘How fast will it go?’ … ‘Will it do 80 kilometers an hour?’

‘It´ll do 90!’… ‘We shall probably go faster than that’

‘Are you sure you know what to do?’ … ‘Do you know where the brakes are?’

‘Be quiet!’ … ‘I´ve got to concentrate!’

‘You didn’t think I could do it, did you?’

‘Now you keep your eyes on the road’

‘Go faster’ … ‘Put your foot down!’

In the fourth and last place, Adjectives, some uses are :

·         Describe feelings or qualities

·         Give nationality or origin

·         Tell more about a thing's characteristics

·         Tell us about age

·         Tell us about size and measurement

·         Tell us about colour

·         Tell us what something is made of

·         Tell us about shape

·         Express a judgement or a value

A good example from the story, is the following one:

‘…three sisters and I were all quivering with fear and joy as the driver let out the clutch and the great, long, black automobile leapt into motion.’