The text under analysis is taken from Ray Bradbury’s book “Henry 9”. Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American fantasy, science fiction,horror and mystery fiction writer. Best known for his dystopian novelFahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction and horror stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. Many of Bradbury’s works have been adapted into comic books, television shows and films.
The extract is written in a descriptive way. The extract depicts the situation, which will probably take place in the future, where all English people leave their country for America or some other countries where it’s not as cold as in England. The main character’s name is Henry and there is also his friend Sam who is trying to persuade Henry to leave the country with him. But Henry is a patriot and nothing can change his mind. Even his best friend can’t. The whole extract shows the emotional condition of both characters and how they are trying to prove their opinion of leaving England or staying.
Now let’s get to the stylistic devices and see how they help us to understand why the author called the story “Henry 9”. In the beginning of the extract Henry says – will every damn stupid idiot fool clear off the Isle?” We see his anger about the situation that is going on. The author uses strings epithet to emphasize the inward condition of the main character. And metaphor “clear off”, also to emphasize the feeling of Henry’s frustration. He is really pissed off and he can’t control the situation. He probably doesn’t want people to leave the country, but he is mad at them because they are not as patriotic as him. Everything continues with another Henry’s monolog: “ Couldn’t you guess I would want to be the last man in all Britain, no, that hasn’t the proper sound, Great Britain? It is the great bell of London heard through all the mizzles down through time to this strange day and hour when the last the very last save one, leave this racial mound, this burial touch of green set in a sea of cold light”. First of all The author uses the changed spelling in the word Great to demonstrate that Henry is a great patriot and there is no other country he would want to live in. Then go lot’s of epithets and metaphors that the author uses to make it absolutely clear that Henry would give anything in the world for his country.
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Henry is a type of a man that wants his country to be the best no matter what. And this is the moment where I began to understand the name of the story. Then we see how Sam tries to prove himself in front of Henry and that he is probably feeling guilty for that: “The weather here is bad. Always has been. No one dared speak of it, for nothing could be done. But now England is finished”. We see that the whole reason of leaving the country is in the weather. That’s why author uses metaphor, to explain that England is not a proper place to live for people in the future. But Henry doesn’t care about that : “ Well Samuel, man says one thing. The Sun says another. So man goes by what his skin tells his blood. And the blood at last says : South. It has been saying it for two thousand years. But we pretended not to hear”. This is the moment where we see the usage of personification. And its purpose is to make it clear that people are connected with nature. And when it becomes necessary to leave one place because there are no conditions that can let us stay – we start to look for another one. In this case the place is South. After that Henry is trying to persuade Sam to stay with him: “No the sun may have taught you, Samuel, but cannot quite teach me.
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I wish it could. The truth is, ‘twill be no fun here alone. Can’t I argue, Sam, to stay on the old team, you and me, like when we were boys, eh?”. This is a very tough moment for Henry, because he doesn’t want to stay all alone, he wants his best friend to stay with him, but he probably understands that he will finally stay alone. Author also uses personification here to depict Henry’s emptiness and disappointment. Then goes Samuels answer: “ God, you make me feel I’m deserting King and Country. I’ve been cold all my life, Harry. Too many years putting on too many sweaters. Too many years many years when the sky did not show. I can’t take it anymore, Harry, I can’t”. I can surely say this is the climax of the extract. First of all we see anaphora that emphasizes Sam’s inward condition of hatred to his country. There are no chances that he will stay in England with Henry. He is done with it. And he is confident in his decision. And second of all I finally got the idea of why the author decided to name his story “Henry 9”. Antonomasia helps us to get the idea of the whole extract and I think even of the whole story. There never existed such King as Henry 9, but this is why the author calls him this way. He is the next and the last King of Britain. And that only Kings can as patriotic as Henry. And they died for the country and so will Henry. Even If he has chance to leave the country with his friend Sam, he will never betray his motherland.
In the conclusion I must say that the extract whips up the emotion of patriotism and love of the country. This is a good example of how people nowadays leave their homeland for something better, as they think. It’s up to people, of course. It’s a very hard question, whether it’s better to leave the country or not and we all have different opinions, but I respect people that love their homeland and never forget about it even if they leave in some other country.