Cider With Rosie By Laurie Lee Analysis
Critical Commentary on a passage from Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
This passage starts with the words as time goes on' which suggests to the reader that something happened prior to this, but doesn't explain what. Its goes on to explain that as the children grew up and left home, their mothers little habits got worse and worse. The writer gives good descriptions producing a visual imagery of these habits: plant pots and newspapers left throughout the house, reading more and sleeping upright in a chair.' This to me portrays an image of a lonely person; she could sleep for an hour, rise and scrub the floor or go looking for wood in the middle of the night. Sleeping and scrubbing floors are a relatively normal thing for anyone to be …show more content…
doing but going searching for wood in the middle of the night is not. The writer states Like Granny Trill' this informs us that his mother's mother must have been similar and acted in the same fashion. By telling us this he is justifying her behaviour. However the writer goes on to state even so, whenever we returned for a visit, she was ready, fires burning to greet us ' By using the words even so, the writer is telling us that no matter how strange his mother's behaviour was whenever they went home she was ready and waiting for them. By ending this sentence its urges the writer to read on, something important is going to occur next. The atmosphere of this passage is of expectancy, I feel the writer is trying to convey an idea that if you read on everything will become clearer and I can sense a deep affection for his mother. It is very vague up to this point, why is he explaining his mother's behaviour?
The at the end of the first paragraph informs us that the writer has more to say on this matter, and starts with the words I remember' so the writer is beginning to reminisce. In this paragraph the writer conveys a fond memory of his mother, he is reverting to the past to explain this. He goes on to explain that he arrived home at two in the morning in the middle of world war one, his mother was sitting up reading a book when you would imagine her to be in bed asleep. She said, "Ah son, come here, take a look at this " By adding the words she didn't know I was coming' in the middle of the sentence he is stating what an unusual greeting from a mother who isn't expecting you and possibly hasn't seen you in some time. The writer's mother appears to have no concept of time, she may not remember how long it is since she last seen him. This tone of this paragraph seems sadness; the writer is trying to convey to us how strangely his mother behaved. He further explains how bad her concept of time is by telling us how she brought him up his dinner and it is actually morning. The writer is also telling us that although his mother's state of mind is great she does still act like a normal' mother would. Her son has returned home and not only has she made him dinner, but vegetable soup, a big stew and a pudding. The writer uses a good description to inform us that his mother, in war time, didn't just make him something to eat but a good three course meal.
In the third paragraph the writer brings us back to the present, So with the family gone,' he continues his explanation of his mother's actions, she is living alone and acting how she wants. She was happy, easily pleased but appeared to be living a very full life. The writer gives good clear descriptions of her everyday life, it appears busy and relatively normal, visiting friends, bus rides and gardening. In this paragraph the writer seems to be attempting to explain to us that his mother is in touch with nature. She liked gardening and writing letters about birds. The word snugly tells us she was very comfortable in herself when she was with nature. The words serenely unkempt, free from conflict, doubt or dismay and rustic simplicity' tell us that his mother was happy. In her final years she was happy like a wild rose, she had no troubles in her mind she was as bright as the flowery bushes. The tone of this paragraph is much happier than the previous ones with nice, bright, pretty descriptions.
In the final paragraph the writer changes the tone dramatically and quickly.
It begins with the words, Then suddenly,' this immediately tells us that something significant happened. His father died, and with his death, his mother gave up on life. There is a touch of irony in the passage, because she waited all that time for him to return and it was just a fantasy. The children knew he would never return but in all that time she clung on to that hope. Their father's death ended any reason and happiness that his mother had. The writer conveys an underlying note of blame in this paragraph. He says the coldness of that which killed her.' He explains how his mother was faithful to his father, waited thirty-five years for praise, raised his family and all she expected in return was for him to return to her. In dying he also killed off any dreams for the future that she had. The writer informs us that his mother became simple minded and returned to her youth.' The thin shreds of sanity that she had had finally been severed when his father died. They buried her under the end of the beech-wood, not far from her four year old daughter, this sentence tells us that when she died they buried her near to nature where she was most happy. There is a great deal of sadness in the last
paragraph.
The last sentence of the last paragraph actually explains the whole passage to us. The writer cleverly omits the fact that there had been a death in the family earlier in life. That gives us an explanation for his mother's behaviour. The loss of a child must be very hard to bear, especially when you then go on to become a single parent and raise your other children alone. This very significant piece of information is left until the very end to explain an important event in their lives.
This passage starts with the words as time goes on' which suggests to the reader that something happened prior to this, but doesn't explain what. Its goes on to explain that as the children grew up and left home, their mothers little habits got worse and worse. The writer gives good descriptions producing a visual imagery of these habits: plant pots and newspapers left throughout the house, reading more and sleeping upright in a chair.' This to me portrays an image of a lonely person; she could sleep for an hour, rise and scrub the floor or go looking for wood in the middle of the night. Sleeping and scrubbing floors are a relatively normal thing for anyone to be …show more content…
doing but going searching for wood in the middle of the night is not. The writer states Like Granny Trill' this informs us that his mother's mother must have been similar and acted in the same fashion. By telling us this he is justifying her behaviour. However the writer goes on to state even so, whenever we returned for a visit, she was ready, fires burning to greet us ' By using the words even so, the writer is telling us that no matter how strange his mother's behaviour was whenever they went home she was ready and waiting for them. By ending this sentence its urges the writer to read on, something important is going to occur next. The atmosphere of this passage is of expectancy, I feel the writer is trying to convey an idea that if you read on everything will become clearer and I can sense a deep affection for his mother. It is very vague up to this point, why is he explaining his mother's behaviour?
The at the end of the first paragraph informs us that the writer has more to say on this matter, and starts with the words I remember' so the writer is beginning to reminisce. In this paragraph the writer conveys a fond memory of his mother, he is reverting to the past to explain this. He goes on to explain that he arrived home at two in the morning in the middle of world war one, his mother was sitting up reading a book when you would imagine her to be in bed asleep. She said, "Ah son, come here, take a look at this " By adding the words she didn't know I was coming' in the middle of the sentence he is stating what an unusual greeting from a mother who isn't expecting you and possibly hasn't seen you in some time. The writer's mother appears to have no concept of time, she may not remember how long it is since she last seen him. This tone of this paragraph seems sadness; the writer is trying to convey to us how strangely his mother behaved. He further explains how bad her concept of time is by telling us how she brought him up his dinner and it is actually morning. The writer is also telling us that although his mother's state of mind is great she does still act like a normal' mother would. Her son has returned home and not only has she made him dinner, but vegetable soup, a big stew and a pudding. The writer uses a good description to inform us that his mother, in war time, didn't just make him something to eat but a good three course meal.
In the third paragraph the writer brings us back to the present, So with the family gone,' he continues his explanation of his mother's actions, she is living alone and acting how she wants. She was happy, easily pleased but appeared to be living a very full life. The writer gives good clear descriptions of her everyday life, it appears busy and relatively normal, visiting friends, bus rides and gardening. In this paragraph the writer seems to be attempting to explain to us that his mother is in touch with nature. She liked gardening and writing letters about birds. The word snugly tells us she was very comfortable in herself when she was with nature. The words serenely unkempt, free from conflict, doubt or dismay and rustic simplicity' tell us that his mother was happy. In her final years she was happy like a wild rose, she had no troubles in her mind she was as bright as the flowery bushes. The tone of this paragraph is much happier than the previous ones with nice, bright, pretty descriptions.
In the final paragraph the writer changes the tone dramatically and quickly.
It begins with the words, Then suddenly,' this immediately tells us that something significant happened. His father died, and with his death, his mother gave up on life. There is a touch of irony in the passage, because she waited all that time for him to return and it was just a fantasy. The children knew he would never return but in all that time she clung on to that hope. Their father's death ended any reason and happiness that his mother had. The writer conveys an underlying note of blame in this paragraph. He says the coldness of that which killed her.' He explains how his mother was faithful to his father, waited thirty-five years for praise, raised his family and all she expected in return was for him to return to her. In dying he also killed off any dreams for the future that she had. The writer informs us that his mother became simple minded and returned to her youth.' The thin shreds of sanity that she had had finally been severed when his father died. They buried her under the end of the beech-wood, not far from her four year old daughter, this sentence tells us that when she died they buried her near to nature where she was most happy. There is a great deal of sadness in the last
paragraph.
The last sentence of the last paragraph actually explains the whole passage to us. The writer cleverly omits the fact that there had been a death in the family earlier in life. That gives us an explanation for his mother's behaviour. The loss of a child must be very hard to bear, especially when you then go on to become a single parent and raise your other children alone. This very significant piece of information is left until the very end to explain an important event in their lives.