This is the passage I choose: Petra caught her own thought-shape, and broke in excitedly to know what was happening. It was like a fountain of sparks. 'Gently, darling. Much more gently,' protested Rosalind. 'We'll tell you all about it soon.' She paused a moment to get over the blinding effect. ' Sally — ? Katherine — ?' she inquired. They responded together. 'We're being taken to the Inspector's. We're all innocent and bewildered. Is that best?' Michael and Rosalind agreed that it was. 'We think,' Sally went on, 'that we ought to shut our minds to you. It will make it easier for us to act as normals if we really don't know what is happening. So don't try to reach us, any of you.' 'Very well — but we shall be open for you,' Rosalind agreed. She diverted her thoughts to me. 'Come along, David. There are lights up at the farm now.' ' It's all right. We're coming,' I told her. ' It's going to take them some time in the dark to find which way we went, any-how.' ' They'll know by the stable-warmth that you can't have got far yet,' she pointed out. I looked back. Up by the house I could see a light in a window, and a lantern swinging in someone's hand. The sound of a man's voice calling came to us faintly. We had reached the river-bank now, and it was safe to urge Sheba to a trot. We kept that up for half a mile until we came to the ford, and then for another quarter-mile until we were approaching the mill. It seemed prudent to walk her past there in case anyone were awake. Beyond the wall we heard a dog on the chain, but it did not bark. Presently I caught Rosalind's feeling of relief, coming from somewhere a little ahead. We trotted again, and a few moments later I noticed a move-ment under the trees of the track. I turned the mare that way, and found Rosalind waiting for us — and not only Rosalind, but her father's pair of great-horses. The massive creatures towered above us, both saddled with large pannier baskets. Rosalind was standing in one of the baskets, her bow, strung and ready to hand, laid across it. I rode up close beneath her while she leaned out to see what I had brought. 'Hand me the blankets,' she directed, reaching down. 'What's in the sack?' I told her. 'Do you mean to say that's all you've brought?' she said disapprovingly. 'There was some hurry,' I pointed out.
This is my analysis: There are a range of stylistic features that the author has used in the passage above. He wrote in first person, giving the perspective of the protagonist and in the past sentence. The language used is concrete and straight forward, and the diction is formal, since the author does not use any slang words, profanity or abbreviations. The syntax is correct throughout, and the words are all arranged in a grammatically correct way to make it easy for the reader to understand what is meant. There is dialogue in this passage, and the dialogue is what I find most interesting. The dialogue here is not a person "speaking" to another per say, but rather a person "thinking" to another, since the main characters can communicate telepathically. This also allows the author to describe the thoughts of other characters to a certain extent, as perceived by the main character. The way the author used dialogue in this passage is a clear example of the abilities that the protagonist and his friends have, the reason they are being persecuted in the first place. He uses it effectively, and you are not confused by what happens since this is not the fist time that this has been done and he still refers to the characters using their minds. The author also uses a lot of imagery, mainly visual and auditory. One example of this would be when David sees the Great Horses, which were, in his fathers view, an abomination. The author describes the Horses as 'massive creatures' that 'towered above us'. This shows how the horses are not normal sized and emphasizes their size, and by doing so also their power and strength. He also uses auditory imagery when the protagonist describes hearing a sound faintly from a man calling his name. This, combined with the visual imagery of the window and the swinging light, helps the reader to understand how much they have walked already, and helps to make the story easier to understand. The author's use of stylistic features help him achieve his purpose mainly because it allows the story to be written in a way that is easy to understand and that is also interesting to read, because had the story being badly written, no one would read it and therefore his message would not have gone anywhere. The passage also has some symbolism. The fact that they are escaping at night adds to the fact that they need to be secretive about it, and also shows that this is a sad moment, a dark moment, since they now have to run away from their own family. It also shows that they are now in danger, and that they don't know what lays ahead of them. I think that he used the stylistic features very effectively in a way that does not hinder me from understanding or does not make it difficult for me to understand the passage and his message.