Tyres (continued)

The image of the girl, Cecile, just hundred yards apart from the boy conveys the helpless situation that the two had been stuck in. When her bicycle was put in the luggage locker, the boy thinks to himself that she is somehow being forced into doing this act. The officer with which Cecile was having a talk with is described as “a little black snake’s tongue”. A snake is a creature usually associated with negativity and danger. And the colour black creates and image of darkness and helplessness. Thus, the narrator is trying to convey that the girl may be in danger and she is helpless. The image of the car “dwindling to a dot” hints at the gradual disappearance of the girl. She is at a point very near or close to him and gradually she dwindles to a dot or is taken away from him.

The event which heightens the moment is when there is a “distant bang and clatter, as of heavy pots and pans falling off a shelf”. At this point, the narrator seems to lose his love completely. The tone changes to that of grief and gloom. There is no life in the narrator anymore; everything is just passing by him. The sorrow of the narrator is reflected when he says that for him it was the beginning of winter. Winter is associated with sadness and gloom. In the last paragraph, the language, tone and imagery facilitate the emptiness and gloom the narrator feels. The writer conveys this emptiness and sense of loss by giving himself no sense of ambition or want of progress in life. His love for life has been lost with the death of Cecile. Flowers have no meaning and he uses plastic ones.

Therefore, the language, tone and imagery were used by the writer to describe in detail the inner thoughts and feelings of the narrator. Everything was judged by him through the existence of Cecile and thus the passage revolves around this significance he places to her presence.