Packing away the tent

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

On the last morning of the camping trip, the tent refused to become luggage. Spread on the grass, it had looked manageable. In my hands, it expanded into a damp, uncooperative country, all borders and folds. The instructions showed a neat rectangle sliding into a bag. Our version resembled a badly wrapped animal that might wake at any moment.

We rolled it once and discovered the pegs inside. We rolled it again and trapped enough air to support a modest expedition. My sister knelt on one end while I fought the zip at the other. The zip advanced two centimetres, considered its position and stopped. Around us, other families were conducting similar negotiations with sleeping mats and folding chairs. The campsite, so peaceful over breakfast, had become a conference of objects declining to be portable.

Eventually we let some air out, folded one edge again and succeeded. The bag looked strained but legal. I carried it to the car with a respect I had not felt when unpacking it three days earlier. Holidays are sold in pictures of arrival: the open view, the raised shelter, the first cup of tea. Nobody had shown us the damp wrestling match required to leave.

Refer to the whole of Source A. Analyse how the writer uses language to make the struggle to pack the tent humorous. Explain the effects of specific words, phrases and language choices, using evidence from the passage.