The author's purposeful choice of words evokes sympathy for the narrator. Just look at these adjectives used by the writer in the passage:
Chilly afternoons, dreadful coming home in the raw (i.e. very cold and wet) twilight with nipped (i.e. made numb with cold) fingers and toes, a heart saddened and humbled.
The reader cannot but feel compassion for the suffering of the narrator. This is achieved through <u>diction</u>, that is deliberate choice of words.
