AF5 English Homework The phrase, like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world suggests that

the river was untouched by man and everything modern that has affected so many other places in the world. Seeing nothing that would suggest the existence of other humans makes you feel cut off and isolated from everyone else. The word rioted suggests that the plants were tangled and untidy in the immense and dark place, a great difference from the modern day and all the neat hedgerows and buildings. The phrase, big trees were kings suggests how nature was the builder and architect of the riverbanks and how the biggest things were the most powerful and most imposing. The sentence, And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble peace implies that the narrator is nervous and even scared of the forest and the animals suggested in hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side with the word peace suggesting that there might be a silent ambush just around the corner. The narrator repeats the words silence and very quiet to emphasise how still and soundless the river and forest was. The comparison between the river and a desert is surprising and effective because they are so different in the lack and wealth of water, but so similar because of the isolation and the problem of being able to lose yourself in the place easily. The word wanderers shows that the writer feels lost and has no real purpose or idea where he is going.