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How does the writer use language to describe the power of the sea?

[12 marks]

Answer

The writer conveys the power of the sea by describing the wave as an all-consuming monster that launches a ferocious attack on his boat.

Firstly, the writer creates an immediate impression of the wave’s terrifying size and seemingly malicious intent. His description of the wave “gathered” behind the boat makes it sound like a vast enemy force, while the verbs “soaring” and “towering” suggest its enormity. By juxtaposing his “tiny boat” against the “towering” wave, the writer emphasises how small he suddenly feels in contrast to the sea’s power. As water rises over the boat, the writer describes being “sucked into the belly” of the wave — a phrase that personifies the wave as a giant monster bent on devouring the boat and its occupants. His repetition of the verb “sucked” later in the extract compounds the sense that the writer has become the helpless prey to a beast with “bottomless” hunger.

The power of the wave’s collision is described in terms of a frenzied attack on the boat that showcases the might of the “gathered” enemy force. The writer uses adverbial phrases such as “brutally submerged” and “spun around roughly” to create a sense of movement and frightening violence, while simple sentences like “The world went black” reflect the speed of the assault and the immediacy of its impact on the boat. The writer’s response to the impact — “I clung on… for dear life” while the oars were “dragged” from him — evokes his desperation and helplessness. In the final simile of the extract, the writer compares the attack to being “spun around roughly like clothes in a washing machine”, with the image conjuring a sense of the speed and chaos of the sea’s powerful attack.

Before you start writing your answer — or even annotate your extract — It’s really important to identify the focus of the question.

If your answer relates to something else, however good your analysis is, you’ll only be able to get half marks.

It’s important to think about the structure of your answer, but using pre-prepared writing frames (like PEE paragraphs) can actually limit your marks.

Examiners warn against using set writing scaffolds because they can stop students from developing their analysis. Instead, feel free to make fewer points, but develop them with additional pieces of evidence, or offer alternative viewpoints or interpretations. 

The writer uses personification in the phrase “sucked into the belly of the wave” in order to convey the primal and predatory force of the sea. This comparison evokes a sense of helplessness and exemplifies the overwhelming dominance of the seа. The use of the verb “sucked” also conveys a sense of immediacy as it depicts the wave’s ability to pull the boat into its core, which further adds to the sense of imminent danger. This word also implies a lack of control on the part of the boat’s occupants which helps to convey their vulnerability and the overwhelming nature of the sea’s power. This helps to evoke empathy from the reаder and also adds tension and suspense to the passage.

The best Level 4 responses include perceptive comments which take a conceptualised approach to the language chosen by the writer. This means thinking about what a writer’s “big ideas” are that they are trying to get across.

For example, using the phrase above, you could show your understanding of the writer being sucked into the belly of the wave in terms of the endless battle between man and nature, concluding that man is only ever at a disadvantage because of the imbalance of power. 

These “big ideas” are a feature of quality non-fiction texts. Try to identify and explore them in as wide a range of texts as possible.