Question

Rainsford, reclining in a steamer chair, indolently puffed on his favorite brier. The sensuous drowsiness of the night was on him." It's so dark," he thought, "that I could sleep without closing my eyes; the night would be my eyelids—" An abrupt sound startled him. Off to the right he heard it, and his ears, expert in such matters, could not be mistaken. Again he heard the sound, and again. Somewhere, off in the blackness, someone had fired a gun three times. Rainsford sprang up and moved quickly to the rail, mystified. He strained his eyes in the direction from which the reports had come, but it was like trying to see through a blanket. He leaped upon the rail and balanced himself there, to get greater elevation; his pipe, striking a rope, was knocked from his mouth. He lunged for it; a short, hoarse cry came from his lips as he realized he had reached too far and had lost his balance. The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea dosed over his head. He struggled up to the surface and tried to cry out, but the wash from the speeding yacht slapped him in the face and the salt water in his open mouth made him gag and strangle. Desperately he struck out with strong strokes after the receding lights of the yacht, but he stopped before he had swum fifty feet. A certain coolheadedness had come to him; it was not the first time he had been in a tight place. There was a chance that his cries could be heard by someone aboard the yacht, but that chance was slender and grew more slender as the yacht raced on. He wrestled himself out of his clothes and shouted with all his power. The lights of the yacht became faint and ever-vanishing fireflies; then they were blotted out entirely by the night. Rainsford remembered the shots. They had come from the right, and doggedly he swam in that direction, swimming with slow, deliberate strokes, conserving his strength. For a seemingly endless time he fought the sea. He began to count his strokes; he could do possibly a hundred more and then— Rainsford heard a sound. It came out of the darkness, a high screaming sound, the sound of an animal in an extremity of anguish and terror. He did not recognize the animal that made the sound; he did not try to; with fresh vitality he swam toward the sound. He heard it again; then it was cut short by another noise, crisp, staccato. ”Pistol shot," muttered Rainsford, swimming on. Ten minutes of determined effort brought another sound to his ears--the most welcome he had ever heard—the muttering and growling of the sea breaking on a rocky shore. He was almost on the rocks before he saw them; on a night less calm he would have been shattered against them. With his remaining strength he dragged himself from the swirling waters. Jagged crags appeared to jut up into the opaqueness; he forced himself upward, hand over hand. Gasping, his hands raw, he reached a flat place at the top. Dense jungle came down to the very edge of the cliffs. What perils that tangle of trees and underbrush might hold for him did not concern Rainsford just then. All he knew was that he was safe from his enemy, the sea, and that utter weariness was on him. He flung himself down at the jungle edge and tumbled headlong into the deepest sleep of his life. In a well-written paragraph of at least 5-7 sentences: -identify three figurative language devices used in the bolded lines -identify the overall mood of the passage -explain how the figurative language creates the mood of the passage

Answer 1

The passage uses figurative language such as personification, metaphor, and simile to create a mood of tension and suspense, which is heightened by the protagonist's precarious situation.

In the bolded lines, three significant examples of figurative language are used: personification, metaphor, and simile. The personification is evident in the 'blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea,' which lends human characteristics to the sea, implying a kind of menacing intimacy. The metaphor is found in 'The Night Would Be My Eyelids,' where the night is directly compared to eyelids, suggesting envelopment and darkness without needing to close one's eyes. Lastly, the simile is present in 'like trying to see through a blanket,' comparing the effort to see in the darkness to the impossibility of seeing through a dense fabric, thus conveying a sense of deep obscurity.

The overall mood of the passage is one of tension, suspense, and impending doom. This mood is set by the abrupt interruption of the quiet night with the sound of gunshots, followed by Rainsford's fall into the sea and his desperate actions to survive and make sense of his perilous situation.

The figurative language contributes to the mood by enhancing the sensory experiences of the character and reader. The personification of the waters makes the ocean seem like an active enemy; the metaphor of the night as eyelids enhance the oppressive darkness surrounding the protagonist; and the simile of the blanket underscores the impenetrable darkness and confusion Rainsford faces. Taken together, these devices deepen the reader’s immersion in the narrative, elevating the suspense and urgency felt by Rainsford and transmitted to the reader.