“One stair up” by C. Nairne

The text under analysis is an extract from the novel “One stair up” by the Scottish novelist С. Nairne. Campbell Nairne who was born in Edinburg and became popular due to her two books “One stair up” and “Stony Ground”. The given extract is a description of the attendance of the cinema by two youngsters Rosa and Andrew. They are representatives of the working class? And they have different aims of visiting cinema that was the reason of developing of the conflict between them. The theme of this extract is the problem of misunderstanding between Rosa and Andrew. The main idea is a different attitude to things, different word vision and different motivation. The book belongs to the belles-letters style, the story is told by the 3rd person narration, but also we can find the 1st person narration (the text is partially narrative). The language of the extract is rather simple, the author used a lot of compound sentences and a lot of colloquial words that help the reader to feel the atmosphere in the cinema and the thoughts and inner condition of the main heroes.

The whole story can be divided into 4 logical parts: 1st coming to the cinema, 2nd Rosa and Andrew begin to watch the comedy, 3rd the comedy itself, 4th Rosa’s and Andrew’s dialog. The plot structure of the extract is closed, because there are all elements. The exposition when the heroes come to the cinema, and their first impression from the atmosphere of the luxury. The story itself begins with talking of their sits and Rosa’s question about the film, there author uses a lot of details and descriptions, in order to show the atmosphere in show-room and Rosa’s and Andrew behavior and aims. Also there we can see Rosa’s attitude to Andrew, due to the phrase “… to be seen in the dress circle, even with Andrew”. The climax of the extract and the tensest moments we distinguish when we understand Rosa’s thoughts about Andrew. The most tense moment we can see when Andrew captures by the emotions, tries to share his impressions with Rosa but she is irritated by him, and she does not want to understand him.

The denouement of the story is the ferine answer of Rosa. The author in general successfully conveys the characteristic features of the main character, she makes it with a help of inner monologues of the main characters, she doesn’t use actions a lot, and it’s story very unusual. The author uses a lot of stylistic devices in order to show the complicated atmosphere of the relations between Rosa and Andrew and the atmosphere in the “Circle” such as: epithets (rapid-fire drama, hot darkness), metaphors (a shower of stars, a shaft of white light). metonymy (young blood), simile (a carpet that yielded like). In the language of main character we can find simple sentences (by their constructions), this colloquial language is an evidence of the low education level of the heroes. We should pay attention on the title of the story. It helps us to understand the reason of the conflict between Rosa and Andrew. It tells us what people have the different aims in their life, not only to reach success in some activity or to develop yourself and be ahead of the rest or one stair up but also respect other people.