My little mindmappy thing...
Now try analysing an extract like this:
The deep green
pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had
left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the
hilltops were rosy in the sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a
pleasant shade had fallen.
A water snake
glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and
it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that
stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by
the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved
frantically.
A far rush of
wind sounded and a gust drove through the tops of the trees like a wave. The
sycamore leaves turned up their silver sides, the brown, dry leaves on the
ground scudded a few feet. And row on row of tiny wind waves flowed up the
pool’s green surface.
As quickly as
it had come, the wind died, and the clearing was quiet again. The heron stood
in the shallows, motionless and waiting. Another little water snake swam up the
pool, turning its periscope head from side to side.
Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came
as silently as a creeping bear moves. The heron pounded the air with its wings,
jacked itself clear of the water, and flew off down-river. The little snake
slid in among the reeds at the pool's side.
Other good passages might be the introduction of Curley's wife, Slim or Crooks.
Mr M
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