Language discovering the power to influence tone, mood, style, voice, and

meaning

Standard: Language 9-10

To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions of standard English. At the same time, they must come to appreciate that language is as at least as much a matter of craft as of rules and be able to choose words, syntax, and punctuation to express themselves and achieve particular functions and rhetorical effects. (CCSS, 51)

Featured Skill: Students will understand how placement of punctuation, including semicolons and colons, can affect meaning in a short story.

Grade Level: 10 (Suggested for grade 10)

Lesson Summary:In this lesson, students will read, reread and analyze the language use in the short story “The Train from Rhodesia” by Nadine Gordimer.

Featured Text Theme and/or Essential Question

Primary Text: “The Train From Rhodesia” by Nadine

GordimerSecondary Text (choice of the following): Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Cry-the-Beloved-Country/Alan-Paton/9780743262170/excerpt

Any other 10th grade novel that examines the effects of colonialism

How do choices in use of punctuation affect meaning?

How can the use of specific diction and imagery affect the overall tone of a work?

When a new culture supplants a traditional culture, what are the effects of the cultural clash on members of both cultures?

What are the immediate effects of colonialism?

What are the long-lasting effects of colonialism?

Process

Activity Instructional Steps

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Inst

ruct

ion Modeling

and explaining

the featured grammar

skill

1. Background: Students should, in grades 6-8, learn about semicolons, colons and other punctuation and how the use of specific punctuation can convey specific meanings. Students may not have explored using punctuation in terms of purposeful inclusion in order to impact meaning. Students may not have an understanding of the choices they have in punctuation and how those choices ultimately create emphasis on a particular element.

2. In this particular lesson, the teacher will not model the featured skill. Students will engage in a close reading of the short story “The Train from Rhodesia” by Nadine Gordimer in order to determine the usage and impact of the grammatical conventions. This lesson guides students to discover the impact of usage in a piece of writing. For students to become well acquainted with the text, multiple opportunities to read the selection will be necessary.

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Pra

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Reading text and

identifying deliberate use of the featured grammar

skill

Reading 1: Student reading3. We encourage the reading of the entire selection before the

close study in order to provide a context for the particular excerpt in this lesson. Independently, students will read and annotate the selections from the short story “The Train from Rhodesia” by Nadine Gordimer. When they annotate, encourage the students to mark passages that show very descriptive imagery, write questions beside parts they don’t understand and underline and then mark any other sentence they feel may be important. Remind students that annotating is not the underlining of the text; it is what they write in the margins to explain WHY they underlined something. On this first reading, students will mainly be reading for comprehension.

Reading 2: Teacher or fluent reader reading4. Teachers may want to read the section aloud while being

careful not to overly influence meaning with inflection. Students need to hear all the words pronounced correctly; delivery includes deliberate choices that could begin to rob students of the opportunity to make meaning based on the word choice, word order, and punctuation. Students will want to translate the text. As students gain understanding, they will want to make adjustments to the translation. Teachers may choose to break this reading into sections and stop and ask questions as they go through the selection.

Reading 3: Small Groups: Annotating for specific technique and answering questions to engage in the text5. Students will work in groups of four to analyze the story for a

particular literary technique. This will begin to lead them to analyze the story as a whole. Move students into four different groups (number of groups/ students in group will depend on the number of students in the class.)Group One: Punctuation (semicolons, colons, commas)Group Two: Imagery (use of interesting adjectives to create a picture of this place and people)Group Three: Parallel structure (The repetition of patterns of words, phrases or clauses)Group Four: Syntax (Sentence structure—looking for changes in sentence length)

(These groups should be predetermined based on student strengths. Teachers can determine though use of prior assessments or a preassessment where to place students.)

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6. Students will continue to annotate the short story as a group for their group’s literary device as shown above. Each group should underline three examples of their language device on the short story. It would work well if each group had a different color pen to use (blue for punctuation, red for imagery, etc.) In the margin, they should annotate the effect of the punctuation on the story.

7. Students will then fill in the section of the chart for their language technique.

8. Students will then switch groups (jigsaw) and will be responsible for summarizing and teaching the new group the discoveries that the original group made. Students will all fill in the chart as each student takes turns leading the discussion.

Analyzing and Evaluating : Rereading to discover9. Students will now use the annotations they’ve made to

answer questions about the text. This questions can be reduced once students are more comfortable with annotating and discussing more independently; they will help guide students to an understanding of how language is used in the text to create meaning.

The questions are intended to promote understanding/comprehension; however, these are not questions that are all necessarily ‘right there’ types of questions. The questions all require students to return to the text and potentially locate additional information to increase understanding.

Ap

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Writing text and

applying the featured grammar skill in a

deliberate way

Writing: Use the featured skill(s)10. Students will choose one of the writing options available. (See

options on student activity sheet)11. Students will be asked to interpret, analyze and evaluate the

author’s choice in language in their writing assignment. Evaluate the use of the skill in other works, connecting their discoveries in the Train From Rhodesia” to a text they are currently reading in World Literature.

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Additional Resources

For extension: (Students may be provided options for extension activities)1. Have students rewrite paragraph 8 that begins with “Here, let

me see that one—“ OR paragraph 17 that begins “The young woman drew her head in” removing all semicolons and replacing them either with periods or with commas and coordinating conjunctions. Students should write a paragraph in a group that explains the effect of the change of punctuation on the overall meaning of the paragraph and of the story as a whole. Students should present their findings to the class orally.

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Additional Resources

For extension: (Students could be provided options for extension activities)

2. Students could compare the punctuation, imagery, parallel structure and syntax (phrasing) in this short story with that in the first chapter of novel Cry, the Beloved Country. Students should determine if the two authors use similar techniques and if these language techniques mirror similar themes in the two works.

3. Students could contrast the punctuation, imagery, parallel structure and syntax (phrasing) in this short story with that in the final chapter of novel Things Fall Apart. In this chapter there is a different point of view than in the other two works above, and there is a shift in these structures. The contrast works well to discuss point of view.

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Inte

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up

port

For Intervention and support: Teachers should review the questions for the excerpt carefully. The

questions are intended to help the students attend to the reading for comprehension. The use of the questions should be determined by the students in the room. If students are able to read and comprehend without questions that direct them line by line, then these supports can be taken away. Always remember that the purpose of the questions is to promote close reading of the selection; the removal of the direct questions should not remove the opportunity to read carefully and closely. The questions should only be reduced or removed once students are equipped with the annotating and close reading skills necessary to question the text naturally. (See the attached handout).

To support students, students should be encouraged to work collaboratively. The first reading should be done by students independently—we want students to have the opportunity to try to find some elements first. Reading aloud is an opportunity for a second reading and to hear all the words pronounced correctly. As students become more intimate with the selection, working collaboratively allows them to build on the ideas of others and negotiate the meaning of particular elements.

If students struggle with the grammatical terms (parallel structure, semicolons, etc.) there are some sites in the “Additional Resources to Consider” section to provide review of these terms.

Teach

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Note

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Answer keys are not provided. The lessons are intended to create opportunities for students to rely on the text to gain independence in reading complex texts. In this instructional model, the only wrong answers are those that are not well supported or engage in fallacious reasoning.

It is best for teachers to engage in conversations and make instructional decisions with a PLT about this lesson, its content, and student outcomes.

You may have noticed that providing background information is not part of the beginning of the lesson. Within the Language Lessons, students will need to rely upon the words and punctuation to create meaning without the assistance of the teacher or other background building activities prior to the learning experience. As students progress through the activities, they will need information and build the background that we typically provide up front. When students enter the world of college and career, they will need to be equipped with the necessary skills to determine context, question a text, determine the information they will need to know to increase understanding, and know where to locate that information.

Ad

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“The Owl at Perdue Online Writing Lab” http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

“How to Use a Semicolon: The Most Feared Punctuation on Earth.” http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

Mumford, Carrie. “Editing and My Love for the Semicolon.” http://www.carriemumford.com/editing-and-my-love-for-the-semicolon/

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Next pages: materials

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Text: “The Train From Rhodesia”

The train came out of the red horizon and bore down towards them over the single straight track.

The stationmaster came out of his little brick station with its pointed chalet roof, feeling the creases in his serge uniform in his legs as well. A stir of preparedness rippled through the squatting native venders waiting in the dust; the face of a carved wooden animal, eternally surprised, stuck out of a sack. The stationmaster’s barefoot children wandered over. From the grey mud huts with the untidy heads that stood within a decorated mud wall, chickens, and dogs with their skin stretched like parchment over their bones, followed the piccanins down to the track. The flushed and perspiring west cast a reflection, faint, without heat, upon the station, upon the tin shed marked “Goods,” upon the walled kraal, upon the grey tin house of the stationmaster and upon the sand, that lapped all around, from sky to sky, cast little rhythmical cups of shadow, so that the sand became the sea, and closed over the children’s black feet softly and without imprint.

The stationmaster’s wife sat behind the mesh of her veranda. Above her head the hunk of a sheep’s carcass moved slightly, dangling in a current of air.

They waited.The train called out, along the sky; but there was no answer; and the cry

hung on: I’m coming…I’m coming…The engine flared out now, big, whisking a dwindling body behind it; the

track flared out to let it in.Creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping, the train filled the station.

Here, let me see that one—the young woman curved her body farther out of the corridor window. Missus? smiled the old man, looking at the creatures he held in his hand. From a piece of string on his grey finger hung a tiny woven basket; he lifted it, questioning. No, no, she urged, leaning down towards him, across the height of the train towards the man in the piece of old rug; that one, that one, her hand commanded. It was a lion, carved out of soft, dry wood that looked like spongecake; heraldic, black and white, with impressionistic detail burnt in. The old man held it up to her still smiling, not from the heart, but at the customer. Between its vandyke teeth, in the mouth opened in an endless roar too terrible to be heard, it had a black tongue. Look, said the young husband, if you don’t mind! And round the neck of the thing, a piece of fur (rat? rabbit? meerkat?); a real mane, majestic, telling you somehow that the artist had delight in the lion.

All up and down the length of the train in the dust the artists sprang, walking bent, like performing animals, the better to exhibit the fantasy held towards the faces on the train. Buck, startled and stiff, staring with round black and white eyes. More lions, standing erect, grappling with strange, thin, elongated warriors who clutched spears and showed no fear in their slits of eyes. How much, they asked from the train, how much?

Give me penny, said the little ones with nothing to sell. The dogs went and sat, quite still, under the dining car, where the train breathed out the smell of meat cooking with onion.

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A man passed beneath the arch of reaching arms meeting grey-black and white in the exchange of money for the staring wooden eyes, the stiff wooden legs sticking up in the air; went along under the voices and the bargaining, interrogating the wheels. Past the dogs; glancing up at the dining car where he could stare at the faces, behind glass, drinking beer, two by two, on either side of a uniform railway vase with its pale dead flower. Right to the end, to the guard’s van, where the stationmaster’s children had just collected their mother’s two loaves of bread; to the engine itself, where the stationmaster and the driver stood talking against the steaming complaint of the resting beast.

The man called out to them, something loud and joking. They turned to laugh, in a twirl of steam. The two children careered over the sand, clutching the bread, and burst through the iron gate and up the path through the garden in which nothing grew.

Passengers drew themselves in at the corridor windows and turned into compartments to fetch money, to call someone to look. Those sitting inside looked up: suddenly different, caged faced, boxed in, cut off after the contact of the outside. There was an orange a piccanin would like…. What about that chocolate? It wasn’t very nice….

A girl had collected a handful of the hard kind, that no one liked, out of the chocolate box, and was throwing them to the dogs, over at the dining car. But the hens darted in and swallowed the chocolates, incredibly quick and accurate, before they had even dropped in the dust, and the dogs, a little bewildered, looked up with their brown eyes, not expecting anything.

—No, leave it, said the young woman, don’t take it….Too expensive, too much, she shook her head and raised her voice to the old

man, giving up the lion. He held it high where she had handed it to him. No, she said, shaking her head. Three-and-six? insisted her husband, loudly. Yes baas! laughed the old man. Three-and-six?—the young man was incredulous. Oh leave it—she said. The young man stopped. Don’t you want it? he said, keeping his face closed to the old man. No, never mind, she said, leave it. The old native kept his head on one side, looking at them sideways, holding the lion. Three-and-six, he murmured, as old people repeat things to themselves.

The young woman drew her head in. She went into the coupe and sat down. Out of the window, on the other side, there was nothing; sand and bush; and thorn tree. Back through the open doorway, past the figure of her husband in the corridor, there was the station, the voices, wooden animals waving, running feet. Her eye followed the funny little valance of scrolled wood that outlined the chalet roof of the station; she thought of the lion and smiled. That bit of fur round the neck. But the wooden buck, the hippos, the elephants, the baskets that already bulked out of their brown paper under the seat and on the luggage rack! How will they look at home? Where will you put them? What will they mean away from the places you found them? Away from the unreality of the last few weeks? The young man outside. But he is not part of the unreality; he is for good now. Odd…somewhere there was an idea that he, that living with him, was part of the holiday, the strange places.

Outside, a bell rang. The stationmaster was leaning against the end of the train, green flag rolled in readiness. A few men who had got down to stretch their legs sprang on to the train, clinging to the observation platforms, or perhaps

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merely standing on the iron step, holding the rail; but on the train, safe from the one dusty platform, the one tin house, the empty sand.

There was a grunt. The train jerked. Through the glass the beer drinkers looked out, as if they could not see beyond it. Behind the flyscreen, the stationmaster’s wife sat facing back at them beneath the darkening hunk of meat.

There was a shout. The flag drooped out. Joints not yet coordinated, the segmented body of the train heaved and bumped back against itself. It began to move; slowly the scrolled chalet moved past it, the yells of the natives, running alongside, jetted up into the air, fell back at different levels. Staring wooden faces waved drunkenly, there, then gone, questioning for the last time at the windows. Here, one-and-six baas!—As one automatically opens a hand to catch a thrown ball, a man fumbled wildly down his pocket, brought up the shilling and sixpence and threw them out; the old native, gasping, his skinny toes splaying the sand, flung the lion.

The piccanins were waving, the dogs stood, tails uncertain, watching the train go: past the mud huts, where a woman turned to look up from the smoke of the fire, her hand pausing on her hip.

The stationmaster went slowly in under the chalet. The old native stood, breath blowing out the skin between his ribs, feet

tense, balanced in the sand, smiling and shaking his head. In his opened palm, held in the attitude of receiving, was the retrieved shilling and sixpence.

The blind end of the train was being pulled helplessly out of the station.

The young man swung in from the corridor, breathless. He was shaking his head with laughter and triumph. Here! he said. And waggled the lion at her. One-and-six!

What? she said.He laughed. I was arguing with him for fun, bargaining—when the train had

pulled out already, he came tearing after…One-and-six Baas! So there’s your lion. She was holding it away from her, the head with the open jaws, the pointed

teeth, the black tongue, the wonderful ruff of fur facing her. She was looking at it with an expression of not seeing, of seeing something different. Her face was drawn up, wryly, like the face of a discomforted child. Her mouth lifted nervously at the corner. Very slowly, cautious, she lifted her finger and touched the mane, where it was joined to the wood.

But how could you, she said. He was shocked by the dismay of her face. Good Lord, he said, what’s the matter? If you want the thing, she said, her voice rising and breaking with the shrill

impotence of anger, why didn’t you buy it in the first place? If you wanted it, why didn’t you pay for it? Why didn’t you take it decently, when he offered it? Why did you have to wait for him to run after the train with it, and give him one-and-six? One and six!

She was pushing it at him, trying to force him to take the lion. He stood astonished, his hands hanging at his sides.

But you wanted it! You liked it so much? —It’s a beautiful piece of work, she said fiercely, as if to protect it from him. You liked it so much! You said yourself it was too expensive—

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Oh you—she said, hopeless and furious. You…She threw the lion onto the seat.

He stood looking at her. She sat down again in the corner and, her face slumped in her hands, stared

out of her window. Everything was turning round inside her. One-and-six. One-and-six. One-and-six for the wood and the carving and the sinews of the legs and the switch of the tail. The mouth open like that and the teeth. The black tongue, rolling, like a wave. The man round the neck. To give one-and-six for that. The heat of shame mounted through her legs and body and sounded in her ears like the sound of sand pouring. Pouring, pouring. She sat there, sick. A weariness, a tastelessness, the discovery of a void made her hands slacken their grip, atrophy emptily, as if the hour was not worth their grasp. She was feeling like this again. She had thought it was something to do with singleness, with being alone and belonging too much to oneself.

She sat there not wanting to move or speak, or to look at anything even; so that the mood should be associated with nothing, no object, word, or sight that might recur and so recall the feeling again….Smuts blew in grittily, settled on her hands. Her back remained at exactly the same angle, turned against the young man sitting with his hands drooping between his sprawled legs, and the lion, fallen on its side in the corner.

The train had cast the station like a skin. It called out to the sky, I’m coming, I’m coming; and again, there was no answer.

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Student Instructions: “The Train From Rhodesia”

Step One: Read the excerpt to yourself and annotate the text.

Read the excerpt to yourself. Make note of words, phrases, and punctuation that intrigue you in some way.

Look for irregularities, similarities, and unknowns.

Irregularity: I find it peculiar the way the author used this word.Similarity: I am seeing a pattern here: in words, phrasing, or ideas. (Diction and Syntax)Unknowns: I don’t know what that means. Or I don’t know what that means in this context.

Step Two: In this step your teacher or a classmate will read aloud.

Listen carefully to the words being read. If you read a word incorrectly, you may want to make note of that change.

Step Three: In this step, Expert Groups will reread the story looking for a particular device.

Group 1: Punctuation (semicolons, colons, commas)Group 2: Imagery (use of interesting adjectives to create a picture of this place and people)Group Three: Parallel structure (repetition of patterns of words, phrases or clauses)Group Four: Syntax (sentence structure—looking for changes in sentence length)

Each Expert Group should underline three examples of their language device on the short story. It would work well if each Expert Group has a different color pen to use (blue for punctuation, red for imagery, etc.) In the margins, write down what the effect of that use of the device is on the story as a whole.

When the Expert Group is finished annotating, fill in the section of the chart for your language technique.

Step Four: New groups—Jigsaw. In this step, you will move to a Learning Group to share your Expert Group's group’s findings.

Each group should now split up and move to a Learning Group. Each Learning Group will consist of one member from each Expert Group. This means that Learning Group 1 will have 1 member from Punctuation, 1 from Imagery, 1 from Parallel Structure, and 1 from Syntax. In the Learning Group, each person will give a mini-lesson to the others on what their Expert Group figured out about the effect of the device on the story as a whole. Each Learning Group member will fill out the data chart for all 4 devices.

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Step Five: Answering questions to promote and assess understandingThese questions are designed to promote understanding of the excerpt.

These questions are not meant to be given to students simply as “study guide” questions. Instead, teachers and small groups should use these as starting points for discourse about authorial choices and their effects on the work as a whole.

Alternatively, students could be directed to create questions on their own to bring to a seminar or other discourse setting. In this case, adapting a concept from Beers and Probst, Notice and Note, students are asked, “What do you notice?” and told to generate questions that point to a particular language choice by the author. Each question includes a specific quotation involving punctuation, imagery, parallelism, or syntax AND a prompt to connect to the effect on the work as a whole (tone, theme, mood, purpose).

Prompts for Discourse about Authorial Language Choices and their Effects

1. What words are used in paragraph 2 “The stationmaster came out…” to describe the people and the setting?

2. What tone do these words create?

3. Examine the short sentence in paragraph four “They waited.” Why did the author use a short sentence here?

4. Notice the punctuation in paragraph three: “The train called out, along the sky; but there was no answer; and the cry hung on: I’m coming…I’m coming…” What is the effect of the punctuation that the author has chosen here?

5. Examine the use of parallel structure in paragraph seven: “Creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping, the train filled the station.”

6. Reread the description of the lion in paragraph eight that begins “It was a lion, carved out of…”. Give one word that would describe how the author wants us to see the lion.

7. Again, note the punctuation used in paragraph 8—what is its effect on your view of the carved lion?

8. Determine the meaning of “vandyke” as it is used in paragraph 8.

9. In paragraph 9, the merchants are described as “artists.” Examine the power of this word choice.

10. In paragraph 12, an image is used of a garden. Look at the image and explain what you think it says about this place as a whole.

11. Look at the verbs used to describe the passengers in the train in paragraph 13 that begins: “Passengers drew themselves in…”. What do these verbs imply about those on the trains?

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12. The color grey is mentioned often. Find some of the times it is mentioned. Why is this color used in this story?

13. The train is personified throughout the story. Find examples of how the train is personified. Why would the author choose this literary device to describe the train?

14. There are no quotation marks used for any of the dialogue in this story. Why do you think the author left them out?

15. In paragraph 16 that begins “Too expensive…” discuss why the woman does not want the lion.

16. What is the meaning of the word “incredulous” in paragraph 16?

17. Now look at the sentences that begin with “But the wooden buck….” to the end of paragraph 17. Discuss why now she did not buy the lion. Is the reason different?

18. Find the place where the young woman’s husband buys here the lion. How did it happen? What did he pay? How does he feel about it?

19. Look at the word “helplessly” as it is used to describe the train in paragraph 24. Why is this word used? How could it connect to someone/ something else in the story?

20. Examine the verbs, adjectives and adverbs used describe the young woman in paragraph 28 that begins “She was holding it away…”. How has she changed?

21. Paragraph 31 “If you wanted the thing” contains several rhetorical questions. What is the purpose of the questions here? Why is she angry that he bought the lion?

22. Look now at the adjectives and adverbs used to describe the young woman in paragraph 35: “She sat down again in the corner…” Why is she so upset?

23. Why does the piece end with the repetition of the image of the train calling out “I’m coming…I’m coming” and the is “no answer”?

Step Five: Writing

Option 1: Write an analytical essay that determines, using textual evidence, how Nadine Gordimer uses punctuation, parallel structure, imagery and/ or syntax (phrasing) in her short story “The Train From Rhodesia” to develop her overall point of view on divides in social class or race.Option 2: Write a comparison/contrast essay that examines the use of punctuation, imagery, parallel structure and syntax (phrasing) in this short story with that in the first chapter of novel Cry, the Beloved Country. Determine if the two authors use similar techniques and if these language techniques mirror similar themes in the two works.Option 3: Write an argumentative essay from the young woman’s point of view in the short story “The Train from Rhodesia” that argues the need for social change that makes the rich/poor divide smaller.

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“The Train From Rhodesia” Analysis Chart

Directions: In your small groups, annotate the short story for at least three examples of your literary device. Remember, underline the section of text and then write in the margin how that section you underlined adds to the meaning of the story. Write in the box below what you notice about your literary device and what your group thinks is the overall meaning of the story.

Group One: Punctuation:The use of particular punctuation may have an impact on the way the reader receives the information and ideas. Find examples of punctuation that has been purposefully placed. Look for semicolons, colons and commas.

Overall meaning of story?

How does the author’s use of punctuation develop the meaning?

Group Two: ImageryRemember writers need to attend to precise word choices, which mean as readers we must pay close attention to connotation and shades of meaning. The nuances of these words impact the reader/listeners reaction and experience and create imagery.

Overall meaning of story?

How does the author’s use of imagery develop the meaning?

Group Three: Parallel StructureA repetition of patterns of words, phrases or clauses may be a key to unlocking intent and meaning. Look for the author’s use of parallel structure to unlock the meaning of this story.

Overall meaning of story?

How does the author’s use of parallel structure develop the meaning?

Group Four: PhrasingThe change in phrasing may be a key to unlocking intent and meaning. Look for the author’s use of phrasing) of a sentence or passage (particularly when the sentences change length drastically to begin to determine the overall meaning of this story.

Overall meaning of story?

How does the author’s use of phrasing develop the meaning?

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Extension Activity “The Train From Rhodesia”: Analysis Chart for Cry, the Beloved Country

Directions: Use the chart below to now analyze the language in Chapter one of Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.

Group One: Punctuation:The use of particular punctuation may have an impact on the way the reader receives the information and ideas. Find examples of punctuation that has been purposefully placed. Look for semicolons, colons and commas.

How does the author’s use of punctuation develop the meaning?

Group Two: ImageryRemember writers need to attend to precise word choices, which mean as readers we must pay close attention to connotation and shades of meaning. The nuances of these words impact the reader/listeners reaction and experience and create imagery.

How does the author’s use of imagery develop the meaning?

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Group Three: Parallel StructureA repetition of patterns of words, phrases or clauses may be a key to unlocking intent and meaning. Look for the author’s use of parallel structure to unlock the meaning of this story

How does the author’s use of parallel structure develop the meaning?

Group Four: PhrasingThe change in phrasing may be a key to unlocking intent and meaning. Look for the author’s use of phrasing) of a sentence or passage (particularly when the sentences change length drastically to begin to determine the overall meaning of this story?

How does the author’s use of phrasing develop the meaning?

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