Analysing Writers' Effects and Language Choices: Question 6
Syllabus R3, R4
Read the passage, then answer the questions that follow.
The market did not open so much as wake. At five, it was a skeleton of empty stalls and folded tarpaulins, its bare ribs lit by a single flickering lamp. By six, the first traders arrived, and the skeleton grew skin: crates of oranges stacked into round orange flesh, awnings hauled up overhead, pale in the thin morning light. Old Nadia set out her flowers in careful rows, the reds and yellows waking last, still curled tight against the cold.
By seven, the market had a pulse. Handcarts rattled over the cobbles in a quickening rhythm, and the calls of stallholders advertising their prices layered over one another until the whole lane hummed with a single, restless voice. Steam rose from the coffee stall in slow grey breaths. Somewhere a knife rasped against a whetstone, sharp and rhythmic, like teeth bared before a long day's work.
By eight, the market was fully alive, swollen with noise and colour. Its narrow lanes were veins now, pumped tight with a crowd instead of blood. Nadia watched it all from behind her flower stall, her hands stained green from stripped stems, and thought, not for the first time, that Bellhaven Market did not simply open each morning. It was born again, out of nothing but tarpaulin and noise and the grey light before sunrise.
(a) The passage develops an extended metaphor comparing the market to a living body waking up. Identify at least two stages of this extended metaphor and explain what it suggests about how the market changes between five and eight o'clock. [3]
(b) Identify one simile from the passage (a separate image from the body metaphor) and explain the effect it creates. [2]
Show worked solution Hide worked solution
Worked solution
Assessment focus
This question tests the ability to trace figurative language across a whole passage rather than in a single quotation (recognising how an image is developed and extended, not just spotted once) alongside identifying a separate, standalone simile.
Part (a): Extended metaphor
The passage figures the market as a body waking up, developed in stages:
- “skeleton of empty stalls and folded tarpaulins, its bare ribs lit by a single flickering lamp”. The market before opening is lifeless and bare, reduced to a bare frame.
- “the skeleton grew skin”, as traders arrive and stalls fill with produce, the bare frame gains flesh and substance.
- “the market had a pulse”. Movement and rhythm (handcarts, calls, noise) begin, as though a heartbeat has started.
- “Its narrow lanes were veins now, pumped tight with a crowd instead of blood”. At full activity, the crowd itself becomes the market’s circulating lifeblood.
- “born again”. The final image completes the metaphor: this is not just activity but a daily rebirth.
Mark scheme, up to 3 marks: 1 mark for identifying the extended metaphor and quoting at least two of its stages accurately; 1 mark for the general point that the market is figured as a living body; 1 further mark for a precise explanation of what the progression (skeleton → skin → pulse → veins → born again) suggests about how completely the market’s character changes across the three hours, not just that it “gets busier”.
Part (b): Simile
The one clear simile, signalled by “like”, is separate from the body-of-the-market imagery:
- “a knife rasped against a whetstone, sharp and rhythmic, like teeth bared before a long day’s work”, comparing the whetstone’s sound to bared teeth introduces a faintly predatory, aggressive edge into an otherwise ordinary action, suggesting the effort and readiness needed to face a demanding day’s work.
Mark scheme. Up to 2 marks: 1 mark for a genuine simile correctly quoted (must contain “like”/“as”), 1 mark for an effect that engages with the specific connotation of “teeth bared” (aggression, readiness) rather than a generic “it makes the sound vivid”.
Common pitfalls specific to this text
- The extended metaphor and the simile use different vehicles (a body vs. teeth) and should not be conflated. The knife simile does not describe the market itself.
- “awnings hauled up overhead, pale in the thin morning light” is literal description with no figurative device; it should not be offered as evidence for either answer.
- Candidates sometimes stop at identifying “the market has a pulse” without linking it back to the earlier “skeleton”/“skin” stages, missing credit for tracing the metaphor’s development.