Driving License Passage

By Fatema Shabbir

The author uses an extract from his autobiography to create humor by showing the foolishness of his driving lessons. He shows his transition from his initial dread to boredom to irritation and then finally becoming the master. He often uses self-deprecating humor to entertain the audience.

He starts of with an alliteration in line 1 to show his fear and 'dread'. His impression of his instructor is that of a 'Sargent  Major', showing how strict he was. The writer did not 'fraternize; with the 'fearsome spectacle', that his instructor was, since he felt intimidated and inferior. The instructor is described much like an automated machine himself, with his eyes 'swiveling' right and left.

Line 11further enhances how he feels about the gap between his instructors superiority and his own lack of self confidence. It creates a greater impact of deflation by being a single line. It shows that the instructor considers him dumb. He often uses sarcasm to create build up, he says him 'a mere passenger' had not realized how 'complex' and 'laborious' getting in and out of a car was. The repetition of 'in' 'out' creates monotony showing how ridiculous the task was. He lists mundane things terming them as 'interesting' in line 14 showing the extent of the pointless things he had to do before he could finally drive.

He uses shorter sentences to show disappointment and longer sentences to show excitement and 'apprehension'. The build up in the third paragraph followed by the deflation in the fourth paragraph creates an anticlimactic effect.

He uses extreme verbs and adverbs such as vigorously to create humor. The contrast between 'lying' and 'sitting' creates slapstick comedy. He alleviates his tasks  to 'exercises' to show how mundane and ridiculous they are. In line 28-29 he creates irony by juxtaposing 'interesting matters' with things like distilled water. The incongruity creates more humor.

His tone then changes to being impatient showing his frustration at not having moved yet. He lists things he has 'mastered' to create sympathy for his irritation in the reader. He constantly exaggerates such as 'the dust was gathering on us'. And also compares himself to 'road furniture' showing his irritation.

In the sixth paragraph he finally gets to move. He then creates yet another contrast by juxtaposing 'backwards' with 'progress'. He uses witty asides to show how ridiculous his lessons were. The list in line 35 shows the absurdity of the lessons by exaggerating. The repetition of 'all' stretches it out highlighting his 'agony.'

The writer then shows his transition to the master as he becomes a nightmarish student, much like his instructor. He contrasts his instructor to his examiner , the latter being the 'mild' one who 'cracked'. The repetition wrong shows that he is now proud of his newly acquired skills and is enjoying by taking revenge from his examiner for his own lessons. He makes the experience so annoying for his examiner the he felt as if it were an 'aging experience' much like his lesson itself.

The final line shows how he was proud and even after all the 'academic pointlessness' he now felt like he was 'equipped to advance his career', showing his newly found self-importance and inflation.