The Secret Sharer
From The Secret Sharer [1907]
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
On my right hand there were lines of fishing stakes resembling a mysterious system of half-submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible in its division of the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of aspect as if abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now gone to the other end of the ocean; for there was no sign of human habitation as far as the eye could reach. To the left a group of barren islets, suggesting ruins of stone walls, towers, and blockhouses, had its foundations set in a blue sea that itself looked solid, so still and stable did it lie below my feet; even the track of light from the westering sun shone smoothly, without that animated glitter which tells of an imperceptible ripple. And when I turned my head to take a parting glance at the tug which had just left us anchored outside the bar, I saw the straight line of the flat shore joined to the stable sea, edge to edge, with a perfect and unmarked closeness, in one leveled floor half brown, half blue under the enormous dome of the sky. Corresponding in their insignificance to the islets of the sea, two small clumps of trees, one on each side of the only fault in the impeccable joint, marked the mouth of the river Meinam we had just left on the first preparatory stage of our homeward journey; and, far back on the inland level, a larger and loftier mass, the grove surrounding the great Paknam pagoda, was the only thing on which the eye could rest from the vain task of exploring the monotonous sweep of the horizon. Here and there gleams as of a few scattered pieces of silver marked the windings of the great river; and on the nearest of them, just within the bar, the tug steaming right into the land became lost to my sight, hull and funnel and masts, as though the impassive earth had swallowed her up without an effort, without a tremor. My eye followed the light cloud of her smoke, now here, now there, above the plain according to the devious curves of the stream, but always fainter and farther away, till I lost it at last behind the miter-shaped hill of the great pagoda. And then I was left alone with my ship, anchored at the head of the Gulf of Siam.
Questions for Discussion
1. Within the passage, the long, sinuous sentences emphasize the
A) narrator’s sense of anticipation
B) objectivity of nature
C) insecurity of the narrator
D) passive nature of the journey
E) fearful tone of the passage
2. In the next to last sentence of the passage (lines 23–26), “devious curves” most likely is used to reinforce
A) the unpredictability of the water
B) the hidden nature of the stream
C) the concept of the complexity of what lies beneath the surface of the story
D) the mystery of nature
E) all of the above
3. The passage as a whole can best described as
A) an interior monologue
B) a melodramatic episode
C) an evocation of place
D) an historical narrative
E) an allegory
4. The first sentence of the passage helps to establish tone by means of
A) structure that reflects the strangeness of the experience described
B) parallel structure that contrasts with the chaos of the situation
C) alliteration to heighten the imagery
D) irony to create a sense of satire
E) hyperbole that exaggerates the danger of the situation
5. Which of the following ideas can be supported based on the third sentence (lines 9–130 beginning with “And when I . . .”?
A) The speaker enjoys watching boats sailing on the horizon.
B) The speaker wants to revel in the beauty and grace of nature.
C) The speaker responds to the symmetry and balance of nature.
D) The speaker realizes how vulnerable man is in the universe.
E) The speaker is fearful of the earth and sea.
6. All of the following contribute to the feeling of solitude except:
A) “. . . the impassive earth had swallowed her up without an effort . . .”
B) “the group of barren islets”
C) “the groves surrounding the great Paknam pagoda”
D) “the monotonous sweep of the horizon”
E) “ruins of stone walls, towers, and blockhouses”
7. The passage is organized primarily by means of
A) spatial description
B) definition
C) chronological order
D) order of importance
E) parallelism
8. In the third to last sentence of the passage (lines 19–23) beginning with “Here and there . . . ,” the figure of speech used to describe “the windings of the great river” is
A) personification
B) simile
C) apostrophe
D) antithesis
E) symbol
9. The writer emphasizes his solitude by using all of the following rhetorical techniques except:
A) heavy descriptive emphasis placed on setting
B) overt statement of the absence of other people
C) tracking the departure of the tugboat
D) diction that emphasizes desertion and neglect
E) contrasting the present situation with previous times
10. A characteristic of the author’s style is
A) succession of allusions
B) the use of emotional language
C) terse sentence structure
D) vividness of contrasting images
E) shifts in points of view
11. The tone of the passage can best be described as
A) cynical
B) reflective
C) sarcastic
D) elegiac
E) apathetic