Analysing language

Exam questions ask you to comment on how writers use language to make an
impression on the reader. You should use terminology to show that you understand
which features the writer is using, as well as how they affect the reader.
Language analysis framework: SQuID

S – Statement – begin with identifying the language feature or type of language being
used, eg King uses similes…
Qu – Quote – next quote from the text the word or phrase you are analysing, eg ‘justice
rolls down like waters’.
I – Infer – next work out what the words or images imply to you, eg ‘like waters’ implies
something is flowing steadily.
D – Develop – finally, develop the analysis with a comment on the reader’s response,
eg the reader will imagine justice, like water, being strong and moving forward.
Make your analysis even stronger with a focus on individual words and phrases –
analyse closely what they suggest, eg ‘stony faced’ – ‘stony’ suggests the character is
like a statue, hard, unfeeling and immovable.
Example
This extract is from My Family and Other Animals, a memoir by Gerald Durrell, of the
five years he and his family lived on Corfu.
How does Durrell use language to describe the character of the ‘Rose-beetle Man’?

Figure caption,
Durrell's family and friends from the BBC adaptation of My Family and Other Animals

For some time the Rose-beetle Man would turn up at the villa fairly regularly with some
new addition to my menagerie: a frog, perhaps, or a sparrow with a broken leg. One
afternoon Mother and I, in a fit of extravagant sentimentalism, bought up his entire stock
of rose-beetles and, when he had left, let them all go in the garden. For days the villa
was full of rose-beetles, crawling on the beds, lurking in the bathroom, banging against
the lights at night, and falling like emeralds into our laps.
The last time I saw the Rose-beetle Man was one evening when I was sitting on a
hill-top overlooking the road. He had obviously been to some fiesta and had been plied
with much wine, for he swayed to and fro across the road, piping a melancholy tune on
his flute. I shouted a greeting, and he waved extravagantly without looking back. As he
rounded the corner he was silhouetted for a moment against the pale lavender evening
sky. I could see his battered hat with the fluttering feathers, the bulging pockets of his
coat, the bamboo cages full of sleepy pigeons on his back, and above his head, circling
drowsily round and round, I could see the dim specks that were the rose-beetles. Then
he rounded the curve of the road and there was only the pale sky with a new moon
floating in it like a silver feather, and the soft twittering of his flute dying away in the
dusk.
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell (1956)
Analysis
● The choice of name “Rose-beetle Man” implies that the man is very close to
nature – like roses and insects. The reader gets the impression he is mysterious
- his real name is unknown.
● Durrell uses verbs and adverbs “swayed to and fro” and “waved extravagantly” to
show the uncontrolled way the man moves. “Extravagantly” suggests the wave
was over the top. The reader imagines he is very drunk from “much wine”.
● Alliteration “fluttering feathers” also highlights the movements of the man.
● Adjectives “pale lavender evening sky” contrast the lively man to the calm
surroundings. The reader can visualise his “battered hat” and “bulging pockets”
implying he is scruffy against the beautiful sky.
● The simile “the pale sky with a new moon floating in it like a silver feather”
creates a gentle atmosphere along with the onomatopoeia “soft twittering” to
describe the bird like sound of the man’s flute.
● Durrell uses a metaphor “his flute dying away in the dusk”, the word “dying”
makes the reader feel Durrell’s sadness, as it was “the last time” he ever saw the
rose-beetle man.