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Question and extract

The extracts your exam questions are based on will be longer than the one here but you should still be able to find at least five points to answer the question. First of all, have a read, and see what ideas you can come up with. Remember to link each point to a quotation or example.

Question

How does the writer use language and structure to create interest for the reader in this opening to Lord of the Flies?

Extract

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.

“Hi!” it said. “Wait a minute!” The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.

“Wait a minute,” the voice said. “I got caught up.”

The fair boy stopped and jerked his stockings with an automatic gesture that made the jungle seem for a moment like the Home Counties.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding