ShmoopTube

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You can't handle the Shmoop!

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This passage wants you to hit pause and read over it one more time. Hey, don't look at

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us. It's the passage that's needy.

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In lines 33 through 37, what technique does the author use to describe the family's desperate situation?

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And here are the potential answers...

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We've got another "technique" question on our hands here...

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...which means we're going to need to know the meaning of terms like "paradox," "personification,"

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"hyperbole," "metaphor" and "understatement."

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If we don't, we're going to be in more trouble than a traitor caught delivering government secrets to the enemy.

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Let's check out the portion of the passage in question...

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..."impressed with the necessity of making some provision for his family, was seriously

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revolving in his mind a little commercial speculation of insuring his life next quarter-day,

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and then falling from the top of the Monument by accident."

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A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, but is still kinda true—that doesn't

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apply here.

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It's also not a personification of the Monument as a killer. It would be Mr. Nickleby doing

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the killing, as he'd be throwing himself off the Monument.

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You're not going to arrest Brutus' knife for the murder of Caesar, are you?

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It's not a hyperbolic statement about the necessity of life insurance...

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...life insurance is mentioned but it isn't the focus here.

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It's the Nickleby's dire financial situation that's the star of the show.

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And it's not a metaphor, because there's nothing here that stands for something else.

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So it's got to be E, an understatement about committing suicide.

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By comparing the casual consideration of committing suicide for insurance money to any other commercial speculation...

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...the author is making an understatement about the gravity of such ponderings.

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However, it's nothing compared to the gravity involved in throwing yourself off a monument.

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