Vivid descriptive language has been weaved throughout the entire text to highlight the powerful

nature which has been increasingly secluded from modern society. Durrell who came from England
paying a visit to Greece chose to stray away from the local population and stayed in an old
fisherman’s house. By revealing the location of the house, Durrell uncovers the beauty of nature that
is completely different from England. “We are upon a bare promontory with its beautiful clean
surface of metamorphic stone covered in olive and liex.” Despite being unfamiliar to Greece, Durrell
shows clear appreciation of the location. She is awed of the mother nature and is fully supportive of
the decision to stay here and be overwhelmed by the view. “This is become our unregretted home”.
Here, Durrell builds the foundation of the complex atmosphere where she has a background of living
in modern society although is found of returning to the bare nature. This introduces the idea of
division which will be further supported in the following paragraphs.

Durrell delves into the reliance on humanity and technology which conflicts with her pursuit of living
in her undisrupted world – “A world. Corcyra”. By listing nouns in a short fashion following by a
description of the “wheezy diesel engine”, Durrell emphasizes the incongruity brought by the caique.
She expresses annoyance of humanity and technology by metaphorizing crew members with litter of
cats along with using dictions such as “staggered off” and “gorge”. Humans are not commonly
addressed as pets such as cats. Creating such comparison belittles the importance of humans and
develops the idea that human existence is conflicting with the preservation of nature. However,
Durrel is inseparable from the assistance of others as she relies on the provisions brought by the
caique. “We are depending upon this daily caique for our provisions.” This internal conflict enlarges
the division of her previous idealization of the existence of humans in nature. She is becoming more
inclined to respect the scope and strength of nature which diminishes the presence of humanity.

The perspective of the description in the text shifts as Durrell becomes more familiar with the place,
this consequently led to a shift in atmosphere. Initially, Durrell used diction to emphasize the
seclusion and the condition of the fisherman’s house. Specifically, she describes the house at the
“extreme north of the island” and said the house is “venerable with the scars of wind and water”.
This shows that she is in fact fearful of nature at the beginning as she hadn’t experienced the raw
wilderness before due to her past experience living in England. This fear of nature is also supported
by the simile “A white house set like a dice on a rock”. By minimizing the size of a house to the size
of a dice, Durrell protrudes the mightiness and the overwhelming strength of nature which induced
fear. Yet, fear isn’t the only emotion she is experiencing as she also notices the beauty of nature.
However, at this point, the emotion of fearfulness was significantly larger than the appreciation of
nature. The shift of emotion is gradual as Durrell got to know the place. Love of nature soon became
more significant and overpowered the other emotions. In paragraph 3, Durrell described the island
only in a positive way, for example: “On the landward side you have a great bay, noble and serene”.
This shows the Durrell’s initial dismay is fading, consequently is noticing more on the bright side,
especially when she uses personification to describe the physical location of the islands which is
closely relatable and is becoming more comfortable being where she is.

- Durrell constructs the atmosphere through the setting of the text. The beginning of the chosen
extract addresses the setting immediately; the author is on a Greek island, living in an old
fisherman’s house. This opening leaves an impression of separation from the modern society,
because of the diction of “old fisherman’s house”.