A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat Analysis

The writer Emma Lavine was born in Bradford and now lives in London. That means that when she's writing about Asian culture and the different sports in Asia, in the case of this one in particular, a donkey race in Pakistan, she is essentially providing an outsider's perspective. She is a westerner looking in. So that outsiders perspective is a really important aspect that you'll see coming up in this as we see that difference between the western culture that she and her audience are used to compared to the culture she is representing. The next really important factor to be aware of is the type of text this is. And this is a travel log. A travel log is just the name for any kind of writing that is focused on

talking about travel. And I want to show you this uh blurb for the travel log as a whole taken from a website, a bookshop website called Blackwells. And this is the description of the book. During a 7-year journey around India, Emma Lavine heard about the wonderful game of bukkashi, a kind of anarchic rugby on horseback where teams of men wrestle and race to grab a headless goat and propel it towards goal. This sparked a desire to explore Asia's unique traditional sports. A game of polo with a headless goat is Emma Lavine's absorbing account of her epic adventure which took her from camel wrestling in Turkey through bull racing in India and traditional gymnastics in Iran. Illustrated with stunning photography, this book

evocatively portrays sporting ways of life rarely seen in the Western world, revealing what it is about sport that makes it so universally inspiring. Now, this blurb essentially highlights to us a load of the key ideas that we're going to see in the text, right? The sense of adventure, the fact that it is meant to be about being really different from the western world and that's the appeal of it. The fact that it's also looking at the concept of sport and what makes that exciting. The fact that it's exploring Asia's unique and traditional sports. We're going to see all of that in the text and all of that is stuff you're going to be able to talk about. You're going to be able to talk about how she

creates that sense of adventure, how she portrays it as being so different from the Western world, the comments she could be making about sport via how she presents this donkey race and how she presents Asian culture as well. With that in mind, when we consider what she's thinking and feeling and how she's presenting this race, there are two key areas we want to be thinking about. The first is the fact that she presents the race as really chaotic and thrilling and that's how she feels about it. The second thing is that she presents this as being incredibly different to western culture that she and likely the audience are going to be the most familiar with. So if we get stuck into the actual analyzing of the text now the first

thing I want to talk about is the actual title of the traalog. A game of polo with a headless goat. Now of course this particular extract is not the game of polo with a headless goat. It's about a completely different sport, but the title of the travel log is still important because it foregrounds what to expect from the travel log as a whole and it has set up our audienc's expectations before they go into this story. And that is important. So when we think about this title, we really get the essence of the chaotic and thrilling and it being really unlike western culture because of the contrasting connotations between the sport of a game of polo and a headless goat. So a game of polo for those of you unfamiliar is a

sport essentially associated with the very wealthy. It has connotations of high sophistication, class, culture. On the other hand, a headless goat has connotations of something quite primal, of something dangerous, maybe reckless, uncultured, unsophisticated, all of that. So, they really are an antithesis of one another, those two kinds of phrases. So when they are put together, it really exemplifies that first of all, the writer's style is going to be to constantly compare things to Western culture in order to fully understand it and process it, but also that the sport she's going to be describing are really unexpected, really different from Western culture, and that's what makes them so much more exciting and thrilling

than Western culture. as well. I do think that there is a little bit of an element of the western gaze to this text as well. And what I mean by the western gaze, it's where a uh western person writes about a non-western culture in a way that seems to reinforce the cliche stereotypes they have about that culture and in a sort of very subtle way look down on it or judge it. We're definitely going to see hints of that going through this. That isn't Emma Lavine's intention. I would argue nobody intends to be part of the western gaze. It has quite porative connotations, but there is no doubt that the way she presents this in looking at how it's different from western culture. There's a fair amount of subtle judgment in there as

well, and we're going to see that as we keep going through. But I think we also see that in that heading, the fact that she does very deliberately contrast the high sophistication and class of a game of polo with the image of a headless goat. If we start by looking at that opening paragraph now, so there's a few things going on in there that all combine together. You've got the fact that it begins in medias res. You've got the illusion. You've got the plural pronoun. And you've got the dialogue. So, let me break down first of all what all those different things are. In medias rez is I want to say Latin for in the middle like beginning in the middle. So, this extract that you've got does begin in media res. It probably doesn't

for Emma Lavine. Like if we had the entire travel log, this is probably an extract from within one chapter. But fair game, the examiners started the extract here. You're working with the extract you've got. It does begin in medius res in this extract. So I would word it as the extract begins in medias res, which is true. We don't know if the actual chapter in the travalog begins in medias res. So by beginning in media res, it creates a sense of adventure because it's like we're immediately thrown into the beginnings of a journey. We drove off to find the best viewing spot. You then have added to that that plural pronoun of we like a collective group on a journey on a quest kind of thing to achieve something. They're on a

quest to go and see this donkey race. So that adds to the adventurous tone as well. You've also got the dialogue in this opening. We'll open the car boot. You climb inside and point your camera towards the race. So it's like they're planning and scheming what they're going to do. More adventure. So, this whole opening is about the thrilling buildup as they prepare to achieve their great goal, which for the writer is about being able to record this donkey race. We also have with the illusion to wacky races a little hint of what this race is going to be like. In case you're unfamiliar with Wacky Races, it's a cartoon, American cartoon from the 1960s where the basic premise was every single episode was a bunch of cars trying to

race and it was really chaotic and there was always trouble and they had a villain who was always trying to disrupt things, etc., etc., etc. So when we have this illusion to wacky races, on the one hand, it's about helping our western audience understand what to expect and foreground that excitement and chaos that's going to be coming because they'll be familiar with the wacky races cartoon. And it's also about starting to build that tension before the race. Now, we think of tension as being like in this case, the anticipation and suspense of the race that is coming. So, just like with a game of polo with a headless goat, more of the groundwork is being laid for the reader on what to expect from this race. And all this raising of

expectations of what the race is going to be like heightens our tension as we're quite excited to see this race. Another thing, quite a small thing, but I think is worth noting about the how they build up the excitement and the chaos of the race as well is in the mode of address used to describe Yakabanbal of uh lads. So, of course, yes, that's very colloquial language. It creates a very conversational tone from our writer, but I think the most uh important thing going on here is the fact that lads has connotations of youth and inexperience. And that's again an important point to foreground considering what we're going to have happen later. That is the youth and inexperience of Jakob and Val is really

going to add to the thrilling chaoticness of the race later on. It also adds just generally a really nice youthful atmosphere, doesn't it, to uh the entire text. You know, the imagery of two lads being fired up with enthusiasm makes it feel really exciting, too. Two porky bloss mid-50s doesn't quite have the same excitement to it. Don't put that in an exam. You then have this imagery of waiting for eternity on the brow of the hill, me perched in the boot and with a zoom lens pointing out. So, you've got all this imagery this time again building tension because it's like they're ready, they're prepared, and all that's needed now is the race to come. But actually, here's where our aspect of entertaining comes

in. Because an important thing to note that I've just realized I forgot to do earlier is the whole purpose of a travel log is about informing and describing the experiences of the writer and in doing so entertaining them. And a big way that this writer entertains is yes by presenting the race as chaotic and thrilling which is very entertaining to read about but at the same time also with humor. So here at the point where you are expecting things to be really tense and that tension building up with the anticipation as they're ready for the race to arrive. You actually instead have a lote. Now a lote is the opposite of hyperbole. Hyperbole you exaggerate you overstate. a light oat youate. So that helps to break the tension a

little bit and by breaking the tension it adds some humor. The lightoot specifically is that image of our villager on a wobbly bicycle. So we've had all this build buildup of expecting wacky races and something really chaotic and thrilling and crazy and what we get is a villager on a wobbly bicycle. So that's a very funny image there that helps to break some of that tension. In the next paragraph, we have that tension starting to be built up again though as we have the dialogue coming coming when they're asking about, you know, where is the race? Where are the races? So that ambiguity on the one hand combined with the fact that it's the sort of present tense, the the fact that they are on their way that again is building the

anticipation and tension because we know they're coming but we don't know when. It's really important to note, by the way, that when you're talking about tension and you're saying all these kind of analytical points, be really specific. So don't say it builds tension because we're wondering what's going to happen next. Too vague. Say it's building tension because we don't know at what point the donkey race is going to appear. Make sure you're being really specific about what's going on in this text when you're trying to talk about tension. So, what's really interesting when the race actually does arrive is a new dynamic comes in. We're told about the two approaching donkey carts in front of a cloud of fumes and dust

created by some 50 vehicles roaring up in their wake. So, what we realize from this point on is that actually the interesting thing about this donkey race is not the donkeys, it's everything else. It's the sport as a whole. It's everything as she says their entourage that comes with the donkeys. Like if you think about a cloud of fumes and dust, that's not the donkeys doing that. That's the cars behind them doing that. And it has within it echoes of that wacky race illusion again, that cloud of fumes and dust. Almost as if it's like, you know, a literal buildup in the atmosphere. And with that buildup, it does seem really thrilling because it's like, oh my goodness, there's something really exciting getting closer and

closer to us that has all of this huge drama and impact on its surrounding environment. You then also have that fact about 50 vehicles. Now, I'm I hesitate on saying fact. We could say hyperbole as well because we don't really know. Like I'm struggling to believe that Emma Lavine stood there and just like as they went past like counted all of them until she had 50. Um so I think it's more like bordering on hyperbole than actual fact there. But the point is she's trying to indicate scale. That's the point of the number, right? Is the scale of vehicles. It's that contrast between the two donkeys and the 50 vehicles. So actually the atmosphere around them, the spectators is a way bigger deal than the actual

donkeys themselves. Even though everybody's focusing on the donkeys, it's the spectators around them that create the chaos and the thrilling nature because of the way they're following after them. That's also reinforced by that dynamic verb of roaring as well. We think of that as being almost like zumorphism, right? we think of lions and aggression and power and violence and all of that is being ascribed to the vehicles coming behind the donkeys. So, it's quite an interesting uh twist in the imagery there, isn't it? It's like two donkeys being followed by things roaring in their wake, almost as if again the spectators behind them are more dramatic and powerful than the actual donkey race itself. So all of this is really

building up tension as we're having a much bigger shift towards action. It's no longer the sitting and waiting anticipation. The tension is now in the actual events that are really happening. And we get that enhanced as the focus shifts away from the race to what our writer and Yakob are doing. Yakob revved up the engine and began to inch the car out of the layby. So it's like a shift in focus to them joining the fry. I would also say that as well as all of this getting across the chaotic and thrilling nature of the race, it's also part of the comedy as well and how she entertains because there is that humorous juaposition between two tiny little donkeys and the roaring wake of cars behind them. And the reason I've

put this in the blue for being unlike western culture is that I think that for a lot of the humor she creates, the reason it's funny is that for a western audience, they wouldn't expect that. Like, could you imagine two horses in England just like trottting down a country lake while 50 Range Rover evokes follow them? [laughter] That would just be ridiculous to us. So, it's this constant subversion. It's the constant imagery being really different from what we would ever see in the Western world that is what is also making it funny and entertaining us at the same time. The next thing that's interesting is we're told we're given this statistic that the Kibla donkey is said to achieve speeds of up to 40 km

per hour and this looked close. Now this statistic was interesting for me for two reasons. Reason number one, I had to Google what 40 km per hour is in miles. Um, and it was 23 24 miles per hour, which to me is like speed really. The second thing is I tried to do a little bit of research on the Kibla donkey doesn't exist. Like I cannot find when you Google the Kibla donkey, all that comes up are various websites with this extract of the of a game of polo with a headless go. I cannot find anywhere else that mentions the Kiba donkey. Like I thought maybe I would find an entry in a zoo website, something on Wikipedia, something to help me confirm in the land of donkeys if 24 mph is actually a fast

speed. So my official conspiracy theory for this text is that she never even went to Pakistan. She's completely made this up. She threw in the name of a kibler donkey thinking that no one would ever be able to research it and prove that that kind of donkey doesn't exist. And I have just accidentally blown this text wide open by being unable to find a kibler donkey when I Google it. Despite not being able to find the kibler donkey, I did just Google regular donkeys. Uh, and they can run at 24 miles per hour. So it it's a donkey. And that contrasts with a horse's speed of 88 mph. Now, this is where I think that the ironic contrast between western culture and this culture comes in again because they are racing racing an animal

that actually moves incredibly slowly. So, it's fast for a donkey, but if you can imagine a race happening at 24 miles hour, that's not really that exciting. So, I think there is a question that's worth being asked of when she talks about there's no denying their speeds and the statistic like is there a little bit of sarcasm in that in that actually she's suggesting this race is nowhere near as actually exciting and thrilling as the stuff going on around it and it's the stuff going on around it that's the chaotic thrilling stuff rather than the race itself. That being said, I could be overreaching here. She could seriously mean that. In which case the statistic is about trying to make it seem really

impressive, right? That donkeys can go so fast because again it's unconventional. We don't race donkeys in the western world. We race horses. Um and we associate donkeys with slow labor. So when we read that it feels quite perhaps surprising and impressive to us that a donkey could be capable of that. There's also some raising uh tension in this uh section with the neck and neck. very kind of cliche phrase there used in sport generally, but indicating the closeness of the race and how there isn't a clear winner. That also is helping to build that thrilling nature of the race because we don't know who is going to win. In our next paragraph, it shifts focus again back to the actual entourage around the donkeys.

And that is where we really get more of that excitement being built up with that sensory language. You've got the noise, horns tooting, bells ringing, the special rattles. So within that listing, of course, yes, you've got a range of noises that creates a feeling of cacophony of sound that you've got, but also you've got the reference to the spe special rattles used just for this purpose. And she makes an analogy of saying they're like maracas. Again, a concept, an instrument that Western world would be more familiar with. um a metal container filled with dried beans. So, it's not just a list showing us the cacophony of sound. It also indicates the importance of this sport to the culture. Special rattles used just for

this purpose. That fact highlights how important this race is to the culture as well. So, although I've highlighted this comment in green, there is a blue element to it as well in showing how different it is. at the same time still using analogies to help our western audience understand it and put it all in context. In general though, there is just a lot of building of excitement here with the noise and the general excite exciting atmosphere that all of that noise creates. Added to that is then the imagery of the uh men standing on top of their cars and and vans hanging out of taxis perched on lorries or cheering and shouting while the vehicles jostled to get to the front of the convoy. So you've got a lexical

field of dynamic verbs there. Tooting, ringing, standing, hanging, perch, cheer, shout, jostle. Loads of dynamic verbs all really showing the high energy that's going on in the people around this race. But also, I think again, I could have colored this in blue because part of the chaoticness is linked to how un disorganized and lawless the men feel. Like for a western person, when I think of the road rules in Britain of, you know, having your seatelt on all the time and all that kind of thing, the imagery of someone standing on top of a car and van, granted going 20 m hour, but still hanging out of a taxi, perching on a lorry, that is not something you will see every day on the streets of Britain. So it's again

creating its excitement and the chaos and the thrillingness in part through how different it is to western culture and how a race would be conducted in the western world. We then have another shift in focus. So we've gone from a sort of macro to micro, right? And if you're not familiar what I mean by that, you need to have a look at my video on how to analyze the writer's focus. But the macro of the sort of largecale image of our two little dwarves, two little dwarfs, two little donkeys uh being dwarfed by the huge convoy of vehicles down to a micro of the entourage itself down to an even more micro back to the writer and Jacob. So it's like the writer builds up the huge scale image then builds up the atmosphere in the

shifting focus to the entourage. And now when going back to Yakob and what he's doing once one, it enhances the chaos and thrill because we're now seeing how they are engaging in this atmosphere, what they are doing amongst all of this. So that shift in focus to Yakob at this point is a really important part of structurally speaking taking us through the journey of events. Yes. but also building the thrilling nature of what's going on by starting off by foregrounding the atmosphere and then shifting to how they engage in it. You've also got in this paragraph a large number I say large number like three analogies that are all about presenting yes the chaotic and thrilling nature of the race but again also how

different it is to western culture. So you've got Formula 1 without rules. everything about the connotations of Formula 1. Yes, it is thrilling. It's excitement. It's racing, but it's organized. It is professional. It's sophisticated. So when you have that juxtiposition of Formula 1 without rules, what you're starting to imagine is the danger, the risk, the chaos, the thrill of Formula 1 with none of the sophistication, professionalism, safety protocols, any of that stuff. The next analogy is a city center rush hour gone anarchctic. So again, our western audience are going to be very familiar with what a city center rush hour looks like. Even in the western world, city center rush hour, it can be pretty like

dog eat dog, people cutting each other up in their cars, um people not really being particularly safe and and all that kind of jazz. When you make it anarctic, that's a whole new level. So anarchctic means that there are no rules. So it's again, it's Formula 1 without rules. It's city center says a rush hour no rules. So more of that lawlessness that semantic field of lawlessness is like basically throughout the text from now on. We constantly have suggestions that there are no rules. And that's part of what makes this so chaotic and thrilling is the fact that there is no organization and no rules to it. And then our third is complete flouting of every type of traffic rule and common sense. So, the traffic rule is an

important one fitting with the Formula 1 and the rush hour. They're all analogies to do with cars because again, what is truly making this chaotic and thrilling is not the donkeys, it's the cars. It's the entourage that is following those donkeys. Um, and so it's part of that, but also the common sense. This is again I think a little bit of that western gaze because common sense defined by whom and that's very much her western perspective right of how the roads should look and the order that there should be when you're driving and common sense is actually a very subjective term really. So from her outsiders's perspective, everything that she's seeing is just a disorganized, dangerous chaos compared to the much more

organized professional systems of traffic rules and Formula 1 that she's familiar with from the Western world. We continue to stay with Yakob now as he travels through because again, this story now is not about the donkey race. That's not what matters. It's not about the entourage. They're not what matters. The true story here is now Jakob. So in terms of what makes this so chaotic and thrilling, arguably it's not so much the donkeys, it's the experience as a spectator. And if we think back to what the blurb was for this text, the blur was that she was wanting to look at what makes sport so exciting, so thrilling, so inspiring. So, we could perhaps argue that she places so much emphasis on the

spectating aspect of it because that is part of what she's trying to suggest is what makes sports so exciting as well. It's the seeing it and being part of the atmosphere in it all. When she does continue with Jakob, she again uses a mode of address that focuses on his youth, our young driver. And I think that's part of the chaos as well because it's it conotes inexperience. like he doesn't know what he's doing. Of course, in a little bit we're going to find out that he can't drive. So, that definitely adds to that. But for sure, that's part of what these connotations are trying to hint at as well. Even if at this point, we're assuming he has a license and he knows how to drive, he's still very

young and therefore inexperienced in driving. You also have an interesting illusion to Darwin in it was survival on the of the fittest. So that Darwin illusion makes us think of like, you know, something really primal and evolutionary built into us biologically. So yes, that adds to the thrilling nature of it because it makes it feel dangerous and risky and like there's a threat to life in there, but also I think it fits in part of again a bit of that western gaze of something quite unsophisticated and unculturing just about raw animalistic behaviors which again if if you think about it fits with the way the cars are described with that dynamic verb of roaring that zumorphism of roaring there. There's something

quite anim animalistic about not the donkeys, the spectators involved in watching it all. It is also though a big part of how the excitement is built in this section. Yes, there's the excitement of like the risk and danger of survival of the fittest. You also have that list of what Yakob is doing. Uh cutting in front of a vehicle with a sharp flick of the steering wheel, quick reflexes to spot a gap, nerves of steel, an effective horn. Now, I wouldn't really bother analyze nerves of steel. That's a bit of a cliche metaphor there that's just indicating his like confidence and bravery. I would perhaps maybe focus on the semantic field of confidence, the semantic field of boldness if you're going to focus on

anything. In which case, you could look at like the sharp flick, the nerves of steel, relishing, like all of that, and how it suggests that he's really enjoying the risk-taking ele element of it. You've also got a semantic field of skill in here, too. Sharp flick, quick reflexes, effective horn, like someone who knows how to drive effectively in these really dangerous conditions. Within all of that building of excitement, she also drops in a little humor in there as well. Again, by pointing out the difference to Western culture. So, when I say parenthetical, that just means something in brackets. So, the bit I'm talking about is no lane discipline here. So lane discipline is a concept that when you're learning to

drive in I can't speak for all of the western world but certainly Britain is something that you're expected to have. You don't just willy-nilly go changing lanes whenever you feel like it. Like there's a reason you would be in a particular lane. And she's suggesting that's not the case here. So again it's just this joke if I had to ruin the comedy of it by explaining it is just haha our road rules are very different to theirs. Haha. She then explicitly says the thing that I've already pointed out, the fact that there are two races, the motorized spectators at the back, in front, two dunkeys still running close and amazingly not put off by the uproar just behind them. So that's again, she's really just highlighting the excitement

of what's going on because there are essentially multiple races and she is part of one of those races, right? Jakob is driving through like he is a racer. And I guess actually that's another thing you could say about that list to describe him. If we think about a Formula 1 without rules, all of that imagery has echoes of that. It has echoes of him being like a Formula 1 driver in how he's got the quick resources, quick reflexes and the sharp flick and nerves of steel and all of that as well. We continue with the semantic field of lawlessness in this section and in particular the fact that that semantic field of lawlessness is juxtaposed with how much Yakob is loving this race. So yes, you've got that

dynamic verb of relished. Yes, you've got the explicit line Jakob loved it. Yes, you've got the imagery of his language growing more colorful. So that's a euphemism there to suggest that he's swearing his head off. Um, but it creates quite a joyful, happy imagery around it. Like, oh, it's colorful. It's pretty. So, all of that is mixed in amongst the description of the race and the chaotic lawlessness of the race. So, that's what makes it thrilling rather than chaotic stressful. It's chaotic thrilling because Yakob finds it thrilling. So, when he does and we're really seeing this story through him, notice that the writer doesn't really mention her at all. It's not really about her explicit thoughts and

feelings. She's not talking about how she felt in the passenger seat. She's focusing on Yakob. We're very much getting the story through him at this point. The closest sense we have of her being in it at all is just that word we. We stayed near the front, but even then, it's still about him having his hand permanently on the horn. He's very much in the literally in the driver's seat uh controlling things there. I've just realized I've got a rogue arrow that has appeared. I have no idea when that appeared, but I'll tell you what it means. Um, and it's a reference to the fact that uh we get this imagery of what the other cars are all doing. So, the twist here is that they are not even on like some obscure country lane. They are

on a main road. All of this is happening on a main road. So again, if you think of the way she's put that in the dashes, that's another similar to the no lane discipline here. That's another bit of parenthetical humor there. She's sort of like slipping that in of like, haha, can you believe they would do this on a main road? Like if this was in Britain, they would have shut down within a 10 mile radius to make sure that wasn't happening. Haha, isn't this different from Britain? And also you've got that image of diving into a ditch like the cars, the oncoming traffic diving into a ditch, which again echoes wacky wacky races in that sort of just like everything having to jump out of the way because the drivers don't show any

consideration for those around them. Again, more chaos, more thrilling. As we go into the next paragraph, you've got another bit of the uh humor there with just a little bit of almost like thrown in detail that when you think about it is just highlighting again how different this would be from something that would happen in the Western world. And that is the fact that the place that they're reaching the finishing line is a hospital gate. The place where this just storm of danger is running at is a hospital. a place that you would expect to be really safe is actually the uh finish line. So there's there's an irony in that, a funny irony in that that really entertains us as well. We also then get told in this really long

sentence that there was a near pile up as the leading donkey swerved, lost his footing, and he and the cart tumbled. The race was over. So you've got this contrast in sentence length between that long description of the whole donkey swerve to the race was over. Now I've got a few interpretations of why our writers created such a big contrast between the sentence lengths there. So there's a question is it anticlimatic like it's been fast go the race was over. Is it the suddenness, that sort of really sharp end that is also part of the chaotic nature of this race? It just goes and stops. Or is there also a disappointed tone to it of our of our writer feeling like, oh, things have finished? That's a shame. Like the chaos, the

thrill is over now. So, there's a few different things there. I don't feel like I've got one clearcut answer for this. I'm sorry, my arrow animations are just all over the place right now. I'm sorry. I definitely think that is a significant change there. As is the way the next paragraph begins with another short sentence and then the trouble began. Now, that is also going to be heightening our tension because the reader is like, "Excuse me, the trouble hasn't begun yet. Like we've had all of this buildup of this super chaotic, thrilling race, and you're telling me the trouble is beginning. That's going to heighten some tension. Now we're back to tension being built from suspense, from anticipation of what

could possibly be happening next that could be even more thrilling than what we've just had. So, it's that subverting of the reader expectations. They thought the race was the most thrilling bit and then we're actually told, "No, there's there's more chaos to come." We also then have the writer say that I assumed the winner was the one who completed the race, but it was not seen that way by everyone. There is so much sarcasm and judgment in that tone. I'm sorry, but that western perspective is just I assumed the winner was one who completed the race, but it was not seen that way by everyone. I'm just I'm sorry. I'm really I'm really not a fan of the amount of western gaze I get from the tone of these lines. We also get it as

well from the next bit. apart from the two jockeyies and officials. So the quotation marks there creating a sort of sarcasm to discredit them. Um and again judging them. They can't be officials. Nothing I just saw was official. It was chaos. So there's an element here of I really I don't want to say she's judging it negatively, but she kind of is like she loves it, but she also disapproves of it. I think is the tone coming through here. She's disapproving of it from a western perspective of how dangerous it is, how chaotic it is, how lawless it is when she's coming from a world of very organized professional sports. When we have this paragraph, the main thing that we basically realize is the trouble beginning is gambling and

people getting really angry about whether the race has truly ended, whether it needs to be restarted, blah blah blah. And you have this tricolon that is part of heightening that tension as now we know what's going on. on now. It's no longer suspense and tension. Uh it's no longer suspense and anticipation like it was with and then the trouble began. Now the tension is coming because of the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Um as we see that anger in our audience rise. So you've got this tricolon of voices were raised, fists were out and tempers rising. So if we look at the different parts of that tricolon voices, the sort of uh emotional anger and the sound coming through, fists were out, the physical

anger, and tempers rising like their sort of uh mental state. So you've got multiple elements there. You've got the body, the sound, and the actual emotions to it. So it really creates an atmosphere now, a threatening atmosphere, a dangerous atmosphere. We've always had chaotic and I think this still fits with that, but now it starts to feel angry and dangerous in a way that it wasn't before. Everybody was loving it before. There was cheering and shouting and all of that and now the tone definitely has changed. What also heightens the tension is the contrast with Yakob and Ikbal because we're told Yakob and Ikba were nervous of hanging around a volatile situation. Yakob is nervous. Yakob was fine when he was

dodging in and out of cars in that race earlier, but now he's nervous. So, because Yakob and Ikbal essentially represent local knowledge, people who understand that culture, when we see that they get nervous when they weren't nervous before, that is the big indicator for us as the Western reader of the severity of the situation. It's kind of like how non-British people might watch someone cut a queue and think nothing. But a British person who watches somebody cut a queue is no. So the first thing we get in the way that this text ends is things don't really get resolved. I mean that's literally what um BBA says. It's still not resolved, but it's starting to get nasty. So, things just sort of abruptly

end and they leave. There doesn't feel like any sort of nice tight conclusion to it all. What it does do in the ending though is create some comic relief. Now, I'm not talking about the by- annual big event that raises money for charity. Go donate to Comic Relief. I am talking about the literary device that the comic relief charity is named after whereby when something really serious or dramatic is happening in a text, the writer will then add in some comedy to create a bit of a release kind of known as like catharsis for the reader. So cathosis is like when you've had a lot of building up of a lot of tension. It's something that gives you the ability to go [sighs] and in this case she does it with humor.

She does it with the comic relief. So the comic relief of course is the twist that um Yakob actually isn't even legally able to drive um and he is an underage driver because it just adds in some ways it adds more drama. The revelation in the dialogue adds more drama because it's like we see the even higher risk, the higher danger that there was because he wasn't just an inexperienced lad. He was should literally have not been driving. But it also creates humor because they got away from it fine. They're okay. And he got to have this incredibly thrilling and different experience. It's of course also comic relief because again unlike Western culture, we wouldn't have young people getting away with underage

driving in the same kind of way. The very final paragraph to this extract and the ending to it, I'll be honest, confuses me. There are suggestions in there that I'm like, did you intend to suggest that? I don't know. But let me show you what I mean. So, she says that she was glad he hadn't told me before. an inexperienced underage driver causing a massive pileup in the middle of the high stakes donkey race could have caused problems. So, it's like number one, is that a twist? Because when I read that, I read then went back and reread again and at no point when the donkey trips up is there a suggestion that Jacob caused it. And yet here she says he caused it. So, is this a twist that they were actually the source of

the problems right at the end of the text or is it her just judging him um judging him as like being a huge part of the problem by taking such a risk and driving underage? So, he didn't literally cause a pileup, but she's almost like sort of a hyperbolic overreaction to it, you know, like he could have caused all of that by being so reckless, silly little boy kind of thing. And within all of that, of course, there is that western perspective as well, isn't there? That that's going to be the thing they really care about because that's what a westerner would care about that, you know, an underage driver caused all of this and etc., etc. But it's all as well hinged under that modal verb of could

have caused problems, which I feel like is another bit of a light, like as a bit of an understatement, right? For a western reaction, of course, it would have caused problems. So by saying it could have like there's only a possibility of it causing problems just again feels like another bit it feels a bit lotic you know it feels a little bit of an understatement. So with this ending its essential premise is that I don't understand if she means it that Jakob actually caused the pileup or if this final paragraph is just a bit of a judgmental dig at him and that's how she ends it. It's a bit of a dig at the reckless behavior of them and how irresponsible they were. Because of course, the other thing that she does

right the very start is she says, "They both found this hilarious, but I was glad he hadn't told me before." Suggesting that she would have stopped him from doing it. So, it's like she disapproves of the risks that they're