James Hilton "The passionate year"

The text under analysis is an extract from the novel "The passionate year" by an English writer James Hilton.

James Hilton was born in England and educated at Cambridge. His main literary works are: "Lost Horizon", "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", "Random Harvest". He lived in the USA since 1935 and died in Long Beach, California, in 1954.

The theme of the excerpt is the first experience of a young teacher who was in charge and might be ragged as it was sort of a school tradition.

The main idea is that a teacher must be calm, tolerant and considerate.

The given text is a good report of the pedagogical activities of the inexperienced teacher who was assigned to work in a British Boarding school. A custom existed to rag on a new teacher the first time he starts. But the teacher turned out to be smarter and he put them off.

The genre of the given text is a novel.

Literary time is the first night the main character, Speed by name, takes prep.

Literary space is Millstead Boarding School for boys.

The plot structure is closed. All constituting parts are present: exposition- the beginning of the preparation at five to seven, complication- misbehavior of the pupils, climax- the penalty given to two pupils for misbehaviour, denouement – the teacher’s relief when he felt pupils’ hidden respectfulness.

It is a piece of an author's narrative given in the 3-d person singular.

The author gives a direct characterization of the main character using a number of adjectives, i.e. the characterization is descriptive.

The atmosphere of the extract is extremely tense. This effect is archived by using such words as "quiet, orderly", etc. They are employed to stress the feeling that quietness is only on the surface but nervousness is inside.

The language of the extract is rather intensive and pretty complicated. The author uses the language which makes his ideas easy to understand.

In the 1st paragraph we run across a Boarding School which essentially a British notion and means a place where students live on campus.

For example students were straggling to their places which means they were moving in disorder).

Describing the teacher's feelings (state) J. Hilton employs a lot of bookish words which are in contrast with the situation which gives a shade of irony to it.

These devices allow the reader to peep into the inner world of the main character, his thoughts and fears.

In the epilogue Speed talks to Clanwell, a colleague of his. There are also a lot of official words in Clamber’s speech (e.g. official notes).

It is an example of Belles-Letters style, or piece (the substyle) of emotive prose.

The situation in the text reveals the problem of relationship between a teacher and pupils, the importance of being passionate and tolerant.

The author in general successfully conveys the characteristic feathers of the main character. He employs the stylistic devices that are aimed at describing the emotions, experienced by young teacher who deals with the young audience. James Hilton uses some metaphors (He was eager for the storm to break...). This metaphor is used to stress Speed's nervousness.

A number of epithets 'passionate year', 'trifling', 'bright' is used to make the text to life. A detached construction 'in hot indignation' stresses the boy's feelings. A hyperbole 'to go off into hysterics of laughter' reveals the atmosphere in the class. "You have a hundred lines' is a typical case of metonymy.

J. Hilton employs such a stylistic device as allusion to military, theatre, and legal terms.

Military: powder-magazine, weapon, armory, recoil;

Theater: first night, star benefit performance, subdued expectancy;

Legal: assembly, penalty, plead for.

It gives us a notion that a teacher's profession is like a battle and performance, court at the same time.

To sum it up we arrive at a conclusion that J.Hilton skillfully depicts the incident in the class-room in particular and teacher's work in general. The text is impressive with its humorous and realistic description of the atmosphere and of the teacher's feelings. In the author's opinion life is tough for teachers in Great Britain and all teachers deserve high praise and estimation.