Analysis of Text № 12

The text is written by a famous American author Mike Quin who was professional at writing novels and working as an active contributor of newspapers. As for his novel “Survival of the Finkiest”, he revelas such urgent problems as person’s wish to survive under the conditions of harsh competition. The story is a narration.The title of the story also speaks about natural human wish to survive. The text belongs toa belles-lettres style. It referres toa social andpsychological genres and describes the main pesonages’ behaviour according to the definite conditions and opens their feelings, emotions and psychological state. The story isa narration and containsthe elements of description. It hasa descriptionof the main characters’ appearance, their business, nature and inner state. E.g.(stout,good-natured, a tired and haggard look, a trace of meanness on the face; to cut the staff down to three clerks, to pal with employees, a drag on competition, to run special sales, competitor, contest, merchandise stores, to fire the clerks, bankrupting, to purchase, chain stores; emotional, mutual hatred, to be doomed and damned.)

The text has an interior monologue which opens the main characters’ desires to find the best way out and to survive. The author represents the evenrs from the point of view of the main characters. The story is told in the third person. The story is emotional. All events are dynamic. The text ends on a reflective and even depressive note because the main herous “were standing in the melancholy street in mutual hatred – and both of them doomed and damned”. The text is represented for further suggestions. The main theme of the story is humanity and business. The idea is normal human wish to survive in the business world. There is a conflict in the story between human desires and harsh business reality and two main characters Jonatan Bones and Ellsworth Spotts which are involved into it. At first the author sympathizes with Ellsworth Spotts a little bit but later he becomes aloof to both of them.

The text under analysis consists of several parts. The main characters and their business activity are represented in exposition. They are two competitors Jonathan Bones and Ellsworth Spotts who are aspire after increasing their profit. Incomplication their wish and ways of changing their trade for the best are represented. InclymaxEllsworth Spotts transfiguration for the worst is represented. Indenouenment the main characters’ psychological state and their attitude towards each other is depicted.

Depending upon the manner in which the text is represented we can speak about the language of the story. It’s rather emotional but abounds in specific business terms. It also contains colloquial words (Damn that man! Doomed, to pal with employees). From grammar point of view the language is not very complicated. The predominant tense is Past Simple. Some sentences are represented in the Past Perfect Tense(The bitter contest had gone on. He had fired many of his employees.)The Sequence of Tenses is also represented.(He knew he had his competitor on the run.) Modal constructions, the Participle, Degrees of Comparison and Subjunctive Mood are given too. E.g.He had to cut the staff down to three clerks. There they stood, gazing across the melancholy street. If you saked him, he would tell you so frankly. The largest chain store. In general the sentences are not too complex and it makes the text not very difficult for comprehension.