in the snack bar - edwin morgan

summary

a blind man is taken to the toilet by a stranger in a crowded evening snack bar

themes

- human endurance

- indomitability (the property being difficult or impossible to defeat) of mankind

- suffering

- helplessness

characters

- narrator

- blind man

'cup capsizes'

- alliteration with the hard c

imates the cup falling

'formica'

- not fancy, quite rundown

- sets the scene

Suggests low social class

Slithering

A slipery like a snake

"A few heads turn in the crowded evening snack-bar."

only a few people may atention out of many

Slowly he levers himself up, his hands have no power

mechanical action - it shows he has no strenth

'Dismal hump'

Transferred epithet the man is dismal not his hump

looming over him forces his head down.

- personification:

the hunch has more power than the man

'stained beltless gabardine'

word choice sugests neglect

'like a monstrous animal caught in a tent'

- simile

frightend but also in distress

'scuffed and muddy'

- no one cares for him

old and well used

'hanging'

- vulnerability

- no strength

sounds usless

'long blind, hunchback born, half-paralysed'

- list of ailments

- emphasizes everything that is wrong with the man

'i want- to go to the- toilet'

dashes show the stutter in his speach he is nervous and dependent on others

Inch by inch we drift towards the stairs

repition verry slow prosses

sounds vaige and aimless

'a few yards of floor are like a landscape'

- simile

huge varied challenging ground to cover

'voices and laughter'

- the narrator realizes how much we take for granted

'slow dangerous'

- simply going to the toilet can also be a big risk

he clings to me

dependent scared emphasisd by short sentenc

'and slowly we go down. and slowly we go down'

repetition emphasizes the slow, repetitive nature of the journey with the pauses

shambles/ uncouth into the clinical gleam

- contrast between the unorganised man and the cleanlieness of the bathroom

it is white clean and immaculate

'brooding reflection darkens the mirror'

old man contrast with his suroundings he is old gloomy

trinckle of his water

onamatapiha slow and week he sounds old and painfull

'old man's apology for living'

metaphor - he is so pathetic he cant go to the toliet properly by himself

painful ages to close his trousers and cote

hyperbole taking ages sugesting the mans pain

'doubtfully'

- does not want to be a burden

Can I wash my hands?

he needs to ask (dependently) maybe not been alowed to before you have syimpothy

thers not towle

this is another obstical for the old week man to overcome

drages out a handkerchofe to finish

sugest diffucualty

'glad to leave the contraption and face the stairs'

- challenge to be conquered

makes the drier seem like a complacated machine

"He climbs, we climb. He climbs"

casura convays hesitancy and difficuty

"Persisting patience of the undefeated"

alitiration and word choice canvays determantaion

survival is a key instinkt

'And slowly we go up. And slowly we go up'

- repetition

- same journey all over again

'faltering, unfaltering steps'

week but determand

"endless, yet not endless"

difficult but not inposible

it shudders off in the rain

unsertanty (like the old man)

pathetic fallacy

'at last'

- finally

'he could go it would be dark'

literaly he is blind metaphorically his life is difficult and uncamfortable

'no-one sees his face'

he is anonumous un-notced like opaning of poem

frightend he is in his strangeness

again refers to opening idear ( poor treatment of the disabled fear of everything that are diffrent)

'hands like wet leaves'

simile fragile weless weak

'his life depends on many who would evade him'

human endurance and suffering

'to haul'

- word choice

difficut and hard work

'rains of August'

- dark and depressing mood

- pathetic fallacy

'Dear Christ, to be born for this'

explains poets thoughts

poem

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