Anita Desai's "Village by the Sea": Chapter 1, part 1.

The first chapter of Village by the sea uses a technique called the 'Adverb of time'; this is when the whole scene follows a certain order from first to next. The effect of this is to give the reader a picture of the whole day in the village. The whole of the first chapter focuses on depicting the life of Hari's family; this is a stereotype of the village. They are similar to the 'voice …

…bed on some old grey sheets", shows that they cannot afford mattresses, and the adjective "old" gives a very negative feeling towards their possessions. Her mother "looked like a crumpled grey rag lying there", this simile brings out the terrible state that her mother is in. The pathetic condition of the mother and the grief is commented on through, "She had no pains and no fever but simply grew weaker and weaker all the time"