The Lumber Room

The text under analysis is written by an outstanding British novelist and short story writer Hector Munro. Hector Hugh Munro was a British writer, whose humourous stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. The causes style of writing is satirical in a humorous way. He uses a witty tone to mimic characters in order to subtly criticise them. The denunciation is done in a subtle way that is humorous. The excerpt is homogeneous. The story is narrated in the 3rd person. This allows the reader to access the situation and the characters in an objective manner, because the characters are having both positive and negative viewpoints.The third person point of view is inert which fits the impersonal atmosphere of the household. The plot of the story revolves around a little orphan Nicholas who was trusted to his tyrannical and dull-witted aunt. One day Nicholas was in disgrace, so he made his Aunt believe that he was somehow trying to get into the gooseberry garden, just now instead had no intention of doing so but did sneak into the Lumber Room. There a tremendous picture of a hunter and a stag opened to him. Soon his aunt tried to tonicity for the boy and slipped into the rain-water tank.She asked Nicholas to fetch her a ladder but the boy pretended not to understand her, he said that she was the Evil One (This metaphor shows authors irony and essential clue to the character). The plot is ordered chronologically, each episode is given with more and more emphasis. The authors choice of lexicon and stylistic devices in this story emphasize a deep dissension between generations, to convey a thrilling power of childs originative mind. The author uses a large variety of stylistic devices, such as epithets to show us the great difference between the Childs and Grown-ups ball.Such epithets from Childs world (grim chuckle, alleged frog, unknown land, stale delight, mere material pleasure, bare and cheerless, thickly growing vegetation) and the one from Grown-ups world (frivolous ground, considerable obstinacy, trivial gardening operation, unauthorized intrusion) help the author to emphasize all the beauty of the childhoods mind and the commonness of the adults mind. The text can be divided into several parts according to the change of the general slant 1. The exposition, in which we learn about little Nicholas, his cousins and his hard-and-fast aunt.Nicholas got into his aunts disgrace. So his cousins were to be taken to Jagborough sands that afternoon and he was to stay at home. The Aunt was absolutely sure that the boy was find to get into the gooseberry garden because I have told him he is not to. The author uses irony and witty tone throughout the story. For example, Aunts condescending tone in describing Nicholas prank disgrace, sin, fell from grace. The author is obviously using the Aunts own word choice to reveal her self-righteous attitude. This is a subtle criticism of her arrogance which she is blind to.To lay stress on the Aun ts narrow-mindness Munro uses such metaphors as a circus of unrivalled merit and incalculable elephants 2. The complication, when Nicholas got into an unknown land of lumber-room. Forbidden fruit is sweet and truly the lumber-room is described as a storehouse of unimagined treasure. Every single item brings flavour and imagination to Nicholas and is symbolic of what the adult of very world lacks. He often pictured to himself what the lumber-room was like, since that was the region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes.The tapestry brings to liveliness imagination and fantasy within Nicholas, the interesting pots and candlesticks bring an aesthetic quality, visual beauty which stirs up his creative mind and lastly a large second power book full of coloured pictures of birds. And such birds They allow Nicholas to learn in a fun and exciting way. The author uses irony to poke fun and criticize the Aunt. For instance, trip to Jagborough which is meant to spite Nicholas fa ils. Instead of being a punishment for the child, it became a treat for him whereas it became a torture to those who went.The Aunts conception of the paradise. The real paradise is the Lumber-room not the garden. This reveals the irony that the ideal world of an adult is dull and boring to that of a child. 3. The climax of the text. While the boy was admiring the colouring of a mandarin duck, the voice of his aunt came from the gooseberry garden. She got slipped into the rain-water tank and couldnt go out. She demanded from the boy to bring her a ladder, but he said her voice didnt respectable like his aunts. You may be the Evil One tempting me to be disobedient said a little boy desiding the Justice must(prenominal) be done.The Aunt tasted the fruit of her own punishment on the children. She is accused of falling from grace, of lying to Nicholas about jam and thus termed the Evil One. She feels what it is like to be condemned. 4. The denouncement. The Aunt is furious and enforc es in the house. She maintained the frozen muteness of one who has suffered undignified and unmerited detention in a rain-water tank for thirty-five minutes. Nicholas was in any case silent, in the absorption of an enchanting picture of a hunter and a stag.