Silly
Just like any other child of his age, John Andrew didn’t have a habit of measuring and choosing his words carefully. He never thought twice before opening his mouth and that time wasn’t an exception. According to John Andrew, Beaver was “a very silly man.” What was even more important, the child thought that he was “the silliest man” who had ever visited Hetton. There wasn’t “anything nice of him.” He got “a silly voice and a silly face, silly eyes and silly nose.” Even his feet, toes, head, and clothes were “silly.” This imagery is supposed to evoke a smile, for John’s antics are really ridiculous.
An expert
Beaver examined his room with “the care of an experienced guest.” There was “no reading lamp.” The ink pot was “dry.” The fire had been lit but “had gone out.” The bathroom was “a great distance away, up a flight of turret steps.” He didn’t like the look or “feel” of his bed also. “The springs” were “broken in the center” and it creaked “ominously when he lay down to try it.” His return ticket had been “eighteen shillings.” Then “there would be tips.” That trip to Hetton seemed to be a big mistake. This imagery helps to understand how unwelcome Beaver is.
Relax
Tony liked going to the Sunday service. The man enjoyed its familiar and soothing atmosphere. As Tony inhaled “the agreeable, slightly musty atmosphere” and performed “the familiar motions of sitting, standing, and leaning forward,” his thoughts drifted from “subject to subject, among the events of the past week and his plans for the future.” “Occasionally” some arresting phrase in the liturgy “would recall him to the surroundings,” but for the most part that morning he occupied himself with the questions of “bathroom and lavatories.” This imagery evokes a feeling distraction.
