Analysing a passage for AP Lit

highflyer8
Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:24:24 +0000

I have been studying for the AP Lit test and this passage came up.

‘‘Winter was no more typical of our valley than summer, it was not even summer’s opposite; it was merely that place. And somehow one never remembered the journey towards it; one arrived, and winter was here. The day came suddenly when all details were different and the village had to be rediscovered. One’s nose went dead so that it hurt to breathe. and there were jigsaws of frost on the window. The light filled the house with a green polar glow; while outside - in the invisible world - there was a strange hard silence, or a metallic creaking, a faint throbbing of twigs and wires.’’

You might think this is an easy passage, but for me this hard as hell. Let’s see.


‘‘Winter was no more typical of our valley than summer,’’ - no more typical than summer???
‘‘it was not even summer’s opposite;’’ - why shouldn’t it be? after all, summer’s hot, winter’s cold. In the summer, days are longer and during winter, days are shorter. So, winter has to be summer’s opposite, right?
‘‘it was merely that place.’’ - what do you mean?
‘‘the village had to be rediscovered’’ - what if you didn’t want to rediscover the village? Would your life turn upside down?
‘‘one nose’s went dead’’ - i’m not what’s being meant here. :-)
‘‘jigsaws of frost’’ - difficult to imagine :-)
‘‘the light filled the house with a green polar glow’’ - why was the glow ‘green’ and ‘polar’?
‘‘there was strange hard silence’’ - why was there a silence? why was it ‘strange’ and ‘hard’?
‘‘or a metallic creaking, a faint throbbing of twigs and wires’’ - what are creaking? why was it a metallic creaking? Whys should twigs and wires throb faintly?


As you can see, this passage is killing me. I would really appreciate any form of help, even a comment for consolation.