‘A TALE OF TWO CHANCES’
Masangcay’s shot story is an example of narrative that happened in the past. It is made evident by the author’s constant use of the verb’s past tense throughout the text. This creates the tone of retrospect and contemplation, which is primarily the author’s emotion in writing the text. It is, however, notable how there is a shift from the past tense to the present in the last paragraph. Most of the sentences also start with the subjunctive mood by using ‘let’ which signifies the author’s resolution after contemplating his missed opportunities with his father.
It is also apparent that most of the sentences are in the active voice. This exhibits the vividness of the narration and the free-flowing pace of the events. Moreover, the text has used a significant amount of complex sentences. The dominance of dependent clauses contributes to the fluidity of thought – that a certain event immediately follows another. Furthermore, it also adds to the cohesion of events, wherein each situation is linked more or less with the prior and ulterior.
As far as diction is concerned, most of the words in the selection are polysyllabic. In effect, the text seems to have a loose tension, which is a characteristic of narrative. Subsequently, the rhythm of narratives does not have to be fast-paced and accelerating so that, the readers or listeners may comprehend the thoughts presented as much as they can. It is even supported by occurrence of long pauses in some parts of the text which are signified by hyphens.
Semantic effects are achieved by the use of metaphors (e. g. ‘all the heavens apparently extended advanced sympathy to our family’ refers to the heavy downpour, etc.) and idioms (e.g. ‘seconds of waiting for their replies seemed a lifetime’, Fulgoso, scared the hell out of our neighbors’ dogs, etc.).
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