Estha Sample Commentary

Immediate sympathy is evoked for Estha because no one could remember even the year that he stopped talkinq. This seems incredible to the reader. 'No one' is vague and suggests no particular adults, in particular parents, were looking after him. The non¬sentence 'stopped talking altogether' shows that he had hardly ever spoken even before he became silent. The metaphors ‘winding down' and `closing shop' suggest, firstly, a clock which is going more and more slowly and is in need of a re-wind. Secondly of a shop which is shutting for the holidays. Estha’s ‘barely noticeable quitening’ suggests a stopping in Estha. The repetition of ‘never' with ‘awkward’ and ‘intrusive’ show the total lack of effect he had on others around him. ‘Never noisy` emphasises his silence, his blending into the background; an effect that is also created by the short non-sentences which, barely communicative themselves, are something like Estha. The metaphor of the 'dry season' is effective to describe Estha's silence, as later the river banks are mentioned as being one of Estha's walking places.

The reader sympathises with Estha in the second paragraph when he is described as being of such little importance that he was 'almost invisible to the untrained eye'. This makes him seem like a rare biological or botanical creature, less than a human being. The fact the some people failed to notice him at all adds to our sympathy for him.
Estha's 'mediocre' exam results create sympathy, as does his being an outsider who likes to do work stereotypically done by the opposite sex. Obviously he has qualities which evoke sympathy in others, for example the bazaar vendors, and this in turn evokes the reader's sympathy. He is an outsider who stands apart from other customers; he doesn't bargain. In turn he has an innocence or simplicity which causes the vendors to look after him, to treat him with a tenderness not reserved for others (the gifts of coriander and chillies), which transmits itself to the reader. The fact that Estha is withdrawn from society is shown in the metaphor 'quiet bubble floating on a sea of noise'. A bubble, like Estha, is fragile, and a sea is vast, and so the noise on the tram is shown in contrast to Estha's quietness; too much noise might destroy him, unless he is able to keep detached from it.

Many metaphors are used in the next paragraph to describe Estha's silence. It is something growing inside his head which embraces him like a friend or lover, thus giving him comfort. However, 'swampy' introduces a sinister connotation, and is linked to the idea of the river already mentioned. The silence also cradles him like a baby; thus the security which he finds in silence is emphasised. It becomes an octopus-tike creature with 'tentacles' which 'inch' and are 'stealthy'; and so again there is a sinister overtone, as if the silence will eventually be harmful to Estha. The metaphor of the vacuum cleaner removing memories from Estha suggests that these memories are debris and therefore undesirable or even harmful. Personification is also used in this paragraph. Silence is personified in 'sent', 'dislodging', 'whisking' and 'stripped', making it seem that Estha is defenceless against the power of silence. The single-word sentences 'Unspeakable' and 'Numb' emphasise this. The metaphor of the octopus is powerful. It also represents Estha's silence, which stretches around his mind as an octopus might stretch its tentacles; the 'inky tranquiliiser' of silence helps him to forget the past in the same way as an octopus emits a dark liquid to confuse and scare away its assailants.

The reference to Estha's unfortunate dog in the next paragraph heightens our sympathy for Estha; to lose this ally seems a cruel blow to someone already in distress himself, and we are sympathetic to someone who would nurse a sick animal, as Estha does. The picture of Estha as the lone walker, without companionship, gains the reader's sympathy. The simile of the fisherman with secrets makes Estha seem like an outsider in his society, as a fisherman would be in a city.

The final paragraph describes the houses Estha sees on his walks. The houses of 'nurses ... and bank clerks' are described metaphorically as if they were fancy cakes, which shows how attractive and ornate they are. The 'older' houses are personified as being 'green with envy' of the other houses and 'cowering'. Thus the contrast in the areas walked through by Estha makes us sympathise with him as it stresses how isolated he is from every social grouping and their petty material concerns.