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James Vance Marshall, the author of “Walkabout” has created a feeling of amazement in the passage depicted. At the beginning of the passage, he contradicts this feeling as he describes a rather boring scene of an ordinary bird scratching about for grubs. He also describes the white children to see this as “prosaic: an anti-climax,” however the black boy was “enthralled. ” The feeling of amazement arises at the concluding sentence of the first paragraph, “their patience was rewarded.
The reward, was the bird singing. The singing of the bird was filled with amazement as it was “beautiful beyond compare: stream… Pipes of Pan. ” The diction is exaggerated to express the author’s use of tone. The amazement seems to fade as the bird stops singing; however that is not the case. It only escalates as the bird undergoes a “metamorphosis” into a “creature of pure beauty. ” The appearance of the bird has completely changed; “drooping tail fanned wide,” “two outmost feathers swung erect”, frame off perfect lyre”, and “mist of elfin plumage. The author is trying to show how beauty can be seen in any creature. The three children must be stunned with amazement because once again, the bird starts to sing, this time complemented by dancing: “prancing Joyfully… High-speed polka. ” The bird then abruptly stops as soon as it started and the amazement ended. However, this experience has given the children courage and hope to continue their Journey.