Visiting Hour

Question 1

The hospital smell

Answer 1

Word Choice: connotations of unpleasant, chemicals, illness
opens with universal smell that everyone can picture making it relatable
immediately establishes setting

Question 2

combs my nostrils

Answer 2

Personification: emphasises strong smell has infected his nose causing discomfort
Synchedote: all his other senses are blocked, focusing on the smell to avoid his other feelings

Question 3

bobbing along

Answer 3

Word Choice: connotations of lost, adrift and unsure
Tone: humorous, he is trying to distract himself from the seriousness of the visit

Question 4

green and yellow

Answer 4

Word Choice: connotations of sickness and illness
helps picture the hospital

Question 5

seems

Answer 5

unsure if what he sees shows distress

Question 6

corpse

Answer 6

connotations of death
jarring and brutal description
highlights finality of death

Question 7

trundled

Answer 7

Word Choice: slow moving, heavy
makes us unsettled as we know a body is being moved

Question 8

vanishes

Answer 8

Word Choice: disappearing permanently as when someone dies they don’t come back

Question 9

heavenward

Answer 9

Enjambment: enforces finality of death
death is creeping into his thoughts

Question 10

I will not feel, I will not feel

Answer 10

Repetition: emphasises his determination to avoid his true emotions
sounds like a mantra/chant

Question 11

I have to

Answer 11

Enjambment: he is aware he will have to address his feelings at some point
he can’t escape them or the situation

Question 12

lightly, swiftly

Answer 12

Word Choice: nurses move with purpose and elegance and agility

Question 13

here and up and down and there

Answer 13

Syntax: shows nurses are everywhere all the time reflecting the chaotic nature of the job
Repetition of and: emphasises they are everywhere

Question 14

slender waists

Answer 14

connotations of slim and skinny
shows his amazement at how much nurses can cope with

Question 15

miraculously

Answer 15

Word Choice: connotations of awe and wonder
thinks of them as angelic due to their ability to cope, he is envious that he can’t do the same

Question 16

burden

Answer 16

Word Choice: connotations of weight and difficulty
direct contrast to ‘slender’ shows how much they have to endure

Question 17

so much pain, … so many farewells

Answer 17

List: emphasises the amount they have to go through and challenges of the job
Repetition of so much: emphasises the extent they have to cope and issues they have to deal with

Question 18

still clear

Answer 18

nurses don’t show their emotions despite what they see and experience

Question 19

so many farewells

Answer 19

Word Choice: image of death, he cannot escape his thoughts of death and dying