A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat

Summary

Genre: Travelogue, a form a travel writing which gives information on the countries visited and offers personal thoughts upon the experience.

Voice: 1st person narrative in the form of a long anecdote. The young drivers provide variety in their reported speech. Humour is sought throughout the narrative. Good use of irony in the final reveal.

Purpose: To present the unusual to the reader in an informative and entertaining manner  – note the use of sound imagery and visual imagery from strip cartoons, suggested by the liking of the race with the ‘Wacky Races’ of 1970s TV.

Structure:

1: Setting. establishes characters and the idea of the 3 races – donkeys, crowd and the narrator’s race to be at the front.

2: Humour – the ‘wobbly bicycle’ bathos

3: Visual imagery as the race arrives. Strong metaphors and emotive language create a sense of danger and anarchy.

4: The race itself

5: The aftermath: the arguments about a winner and the eventual reveal that Yaqoob is too young to drive.