ipl-logo

Bright Lights Big City Analysis

1187 Words5 Pages
This text was written by Jay Mclerney as a part of the novel “Bright Lights, Big City” in 1984. It is a narrative text with a lot of dialogues such as “My birthday is January thirteenth. I will be twenty-nine years old”, “Excuse me, sir, but you’re sitting on me”. These dialogues help animate the text. The text is targeted to everyone in the society and the goal is to entertain the readers and to deliver a message that people should be more open minded to actively help other people in need instead of waiting for another person to do it instead. The text recounts an event that took place at a train. It involves the main character which is the “you” in the passage, the tramp, and the old lady. It is told through the eyes and the point of view of the “you”. The text starts with the tramp approaching narrator and telling him about his birthday. Then he goes down the car and sits down on the lap of an old lady. There are dozens of “healthy men” around the tramp and the lady but no one is brave enough to go and help the lady. The lady starts to cry and the narrator imagines the incident being reported on a newspaper. As the lady continues to suffer under the weight of the man, the narrator stands up to help her. However, as soon as he stands up, the man gets off of the lady’s lap and moves to the back of the car which creates an awkward atmosphere in the car. The second person narrative of this text engages the readers. It makes the readers feel like they are a part of the
Open Document