John Boynton Priestley "Angel Pavement"

John Boynton Priestley, known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. The extract under analysis is taken from Angel Pavement, it is a novel by J. B. Priestley, published in 1930. It is a social panorama of the city of London, seen largely through the eyes of the employees of the firm Twigg & Dersingham, on the first floor of No. 8, Angel Pavement. The story is set against the background of the Great Depression.
The text is about the relationship between parents and their children. One day Mrs.Smeeth and her daughter, Edna, prepares a dinner. Mrs.Smeeth asks her daughter to bring her the mint sauce. Edna is not quickly enough to do it, and Mr. Smeeth gets angry with her. Mr. Smeeth is disappointed by his daughter, he can’t understand her. Everything Edna is doing irritates him. All these changes in Edna worries Mr.Smeeth. Then Mr. Smeeth thinks about George, his son. George is also a disappointment for Mr.Smeeth. He believes that Edna and George belong to a younger generation that exists in a different world, that is why Mr.Smeeth can’t understand them.
The central idea of this text is misunderstanding between two generations, older and younger. The slant of extract is enough dramatic. The author of the extract conveys feelings and emotions of desperate father, who is very sad, that he estranges from his children.
Practically the whole extract presents thoughts of the protagonist, his inner monologue.
The text begins with the dialogue between members of family, then reflections of Mr. Smeeth about his children. At first he describes relation between him and daughter, tells about his attitude to daughter’s behavior, appearance, character traits, talking, looking, way of acting. He describes directly using epithets Edna, why she so irritates him, for example “she seemed to him a very silly, awkward age, greyish-greenish-bluish eyes, languid   and complaining, shrill and resentful, or sullen and tearful, airs and graces”. Also...