TEXT 1 ANALYSIS

Audience and Purpose:Text 1

Text #1 is memoir extracted from the autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole. It follows all conventions of memoirs, namely direct narration, hindsight wisdom, dialogue and anecdotes. Direct narration is evident through the repeated use of ‘I´ throughout the extract, as well as from the content being a direct recounting of her history. The author also provides multiple instances of hindsight wisdom in her observations on death and life, saying that, ”Death is always terrible – no one need be ashamed to fear it.” Similarly, she reflects on her relationship with the surgeon in, “I think he had some fondness for me… I used to…weep over him in a very weak and silly manner perhaps.”  Notable characters are also given their own voice, in “Let my lay my head upon your breast.” Finally, it was anecdotal as she recounted a specific event from her past – her falling in love with the surgeon. The aim of the piece was to recount her experiences, and to retell her emotions on them. At the publishing time of the piece, it was likely the audience were the English. This is shown in the sympathy she expresses with them, in “the mother country pays a dear price for the possession of her colonies,” and in the older styled diction. The audience may also be people who have experienced the deaths of loved ones, as it offers support for them and suggestions on dealing with it.

In this memoir, the author is able to retell her experience in Jamaica in the year 1853 and express through writing, all the emotions she had during that time period. She then goes on to reflect on her time there and her experiences. She talks a lot about deaths and its sufferings and because she was a nurse, it was much harder on her. This could relate to people going through similar times with a loved one, so it provides the readers with an insight. The author retells a very personal and intimate anecdote of her relation with a surgeon. This makes it more of a memoir because the author is able to engage with her audience and to portray her insights on their personal thoughts and views. The author has also gained wisdom through her experience with death and realized: “Death is always terrible- no one needs to be ashamed of it” and “for before that time, if I had not learnt to meet him with a brave, smiling face, and this he taught me.”

The mood of the memoir is friendly and quite personal/ private. The author uses this memoir to reflect on her time in Jamaica. One of the main themes is death, which adds a bit of a depressive atmosphere yet gradually brightens the mood by retelling the story of her and the surgeon, relating the theme to love instead of death and says: “I do not willingly care to dwell upon scenes of suffering and death.” She continuously towards the end focuses on the positive things of the surgeon and how he made her feel instead of talking about his death: “his kind heart feigned a feeling that he saw would give me joy; for I used to call him “My son- my dear child”, and to week over him in a very weak and silly manner perhaps.”

It is written in a form of a memoir so throughout the whole extract there is a repetition of ‘I’ which is an example of direct narration which reflects her feelings and personal experiences. Through using a memoir, many anecdotes can be told that which shows a person’s wisdom evolving creating inspiration for other people, here we see how she gains wisdom of death: “Death is always terrible- no one should be ashamed to fear it.” The uniqueness of the piece gets the readers sort of engaged yet due to her more old structure and older dialect; many readers might find themselves not able to identify with such a piece. She also structures her sentences to be very long, sometimes five continuous lines. She relates herself with England and refers to it as “the mother country” which hints where this style of writing emerged from. Due to her relation with England, the author’s views and opinion are limited and it would be bias because it would affect how she viewed incidents and occurrences around her relation with the surgeon.
Throughout the extract, pronouns are used.