Understanding Chic

Overview

1st person account of a teenager's trip to Paris; looking back on the memory - first person pronoun 'I' places writer at centre of the text Other characters referred to in relation to the narrator, or in a group, so first person narrator is seen as the most important character explains why they first moved to Paris

Genre like any other personal account, repetition of first person pronoun 'I' layout like a diary entry Lines 11 and 18, temporal connectives; 'a few hours later' indicates shift of time, typical of story narratives

Representation of Paris and Parisians

Positive account of Paris itself, positive imagery of 'beauty,' 'polished', 'pride,' 'like jewells', but critical of the 'chic savages' that are the Parisians Anglo-French used; 'gifler' 'citron presse' 'nons' 'oui' Heavy use of senses to show memories; lines 5-8 Alliteration abundant on lines 7, 9 and 36 highly descriptive language and imagery, lines 25, 27 and 28

Comparisons

'The Most Beautiful Walk in the World' by John Baxter - Baxter lives in Paris, Fraser-Cavassoni lives in Paris also, and describes her first time in Paris as a teenager on a family holiday.