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These lines taken from "The Snow Man" might be interpreted in these ways. One possibility is to have an objective view of the nature of a winter landscape without attributing any personal emotions to it. The other interpretarion is the assiciation of winter with misery, sadness and loneliness, the feelings that are related to the picture of the wind blowing with just a few leaves.
I believe these parts provide direct characterization: "<span>Endowed with commonsense, as massive and hard as blocks of granite, fastened together by stern rigidity of purpose, as with iron clamps, he followed out his original design, probably without so much as imagining an objection to it."
The writer clearly and directly describes the character's personal features, as well as his internal motivation for an action. It is opposed to indirect characterization, where we can grasp the character's traits or motivation through his/her actions or speech.</span>
"Axis" is a noun, and it means "an imaginary line around which a body rotates".