English 1201 Analytical Essay: Passage Analysis and Interpretation

This essay provides an analysis of a selected passage, focusing on its interpretation and thematic significance. The essay begins with an introduction summarizing the passage's context, which involves a narrator contemplating an offer and reflecting on their surroundings, including the presence of prostitutes and the associated social stigma. The body of the essay delves into the narrator's perspective, examining the author's use of genderless narration and the setting to challenge societal judgments. It explores the passage's two-fold interpretation: societal perceptions of those associated with prostitutes and the narrator's evolving perspective. The essay argues that the passage critiques the characterization of prostitutes and the stereotypes imposed on those who interact with them. The language, tone, and symbolism within the passage are analyzed to highlight the author's message. The conclusion synthesizes the analysis, emphasizing the didactic nature of the passage and its role in conveying the story's central themes. The essay underscores the importance of thematic reading in understanding the work's overall meaning.

Running Head: PASSAGE ANALYSIS
Passage Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1PASSAGE ANALYSIS
Introduction
The passage is written from the perspective of the narrator, who is shown to be
contemplating the offer by the lady who is introduced to the reader as the person who has just
proposed something which can get the narrator into serious trouble. The paragraph roughly can
be summarized into a narrator thinking about an offer that makes him think about his position
and why he chose to stay at a place his former roommate denied to stay. The narrator works as a
presser in a garment factory, which is nearby where he remains. The passage is placed in the
background where the narrator lives surrounded by prostitutes, which leads him to think about
the social stigma which is associated with them. The essay will analyze the passage from the
narrator’s point of view, which shows only a part of the narrative and will interpret the story and
its background and the offer, which leads us to this situation. The thesis statement is the
contemplation by the narrator about the fact why should the hesitation occur in him when he did
not hesitate while choosing to stay in the room. The superficial reading of the passage is
expected to confuse the reader about the past choice and the detail of the offer made by Mrs.
Chen. But a thematic reading shows that the passage consists of the complete didactic nature of
the entire narrative, and the whole story will be centred on this single passage and the message
denoted by it.
Discussion
The passage is about the narrator whose gender is not revealed in the passage, the
genderless narrator can be a male or a female, and that can be interpreted as an intentional
exclusion of the author to depict that the stereotype associated with the fact that an individual
living in the same vicinity as the prostitutes are judged in the same way irrespective of their
gender. The location and the space of the room or the apartment where the narrator is situated are

2PASSAGE ANALYSIS
not specified. This shows the author’s intention to show how a social structure of division has
nothing to do with the size of the place owned by the individual. There is a single concept that
has been used as the iron-clad truth by everyone and is never refuted by anyone. The complete
negation of prostitutes being viewed as a human being is the question which arises by narrowing
the location of the narrator and the gender.
The passage can be interpreted in two ways; one is the perception of the society towards
people who associate themselves with prostitutes. The view towards prostitute is shown to be
challenged, and the narrator admits that living with has changed the concept of them being the
bloodsucker of society. The passage is about the social dogma and the breaking away from it by
a person who has spent time with them. The condition of any locality housing the prostitutes are
considered to culturally and religiously and structurally not fit to be housed civilized society, and
even utterances about them are heard in whispers and lowered voice displaying the moral
judgment towards them. The narrator, on the other hand, has a change of mind and the thought
process that ‘they were not bloodsuckers as people assumed.’ This change can be shown as the
very basis of the passage that living with and knowing and viewing them as an individual can
change the stereotype among them. The message of the passage, in my view, is reflected in this
single passage. Through this single paragraph, the author challenges two of the most violent
impositions of society, namely the characterization of the prostitutes as the housebreakers and
the ruins of the community and the stereotype and the judgmental views imposed on people who
live or share their existence with them.
The significance of the passage lies in the author’s use of the backdrop used where the
narrator stands contemplating the past choice and the present offer. The tone of the passage is
very calm, but the calm represents the considerable upheaval, which is depicted by the symbol of

3PASSAGE ANALYSIS
the plane flying by at high speed. The language of the passage is straightforward, but each word
acts as an accelerator, which strengthens the unity of the passage as one complete synthesis of
the meaning of life and living in society. The view outside the window of the narrator is the
depiction of the world as a whole where the civilized society is passing the existence of
prostitutes as something which they do not consider to be worthy of acknowledgment or even
being noticed. The cluster of light from the plane is the symbolization of the light of civilization,
which has become so sharp that it has blinded the society of the speed which has acquired and
what is being left out by them. The use of the word ‘noiselessly’ is the depiction of the denture
being caused by the speed that cannot be assessed due to the wound or the violation against
humanity being done noiselessly. The noiseless work of inflicting the injury can be associated
with the silent judgments by the society and the view that it is the prostitute who sucks the blood
and the men who employees them. The image of the weeping cherry is also a form showing
affinity to the prostitutes who simply work to earn their living and never attack back. In turn, the
part of the society which is named for ruining it continues to bloom without disrupting the peace
of the surrounding.
Conclusion
The single paragraph is the representation of the complete work and can be analyzed as
the symbolization of the entire work’s message. The particular choice of words in this passage
makes the reader understand the didactic nature of the story, and the options which lead to the
narrator in the situation lose its meaning, and the complete sense is accessible by a single
sentence from the narrator that prostitutes are not what people assume. The image of the society
and the line of thought, which is considered to be an attack, can be assessed by the thematic
reading of the passage.

4PASSAGE ANALYSIS