Opening lines - once again

An IGCSE paper will ask students to comment on the opening lines. Look at some opening sentences here:

“A cradle won’t hold my baby.”

—Daniel Woodrell, “Uncle”

The opening sentences say a lot here. 

Is the "cradle" too small?

Is the "baby" too big?

Is it that the "baby" is very naughty or cranky or boisterous?

These opening lines say little and leave much unsaid for the reader. Thev have set a path for the story to unfold. 

Opening lines of a story

It is with a clear purpose that an author starts a story. To get to the end. However, the author has a broad framework in time. This is the end towards which s/he will work.

Let's look at the opening lines of "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”


What can we identify in here:

It has humor - that men who have wealth need a wife.
It has sarcasm - to say that this is a universally acknowledged truth.
It uses a clause in between - "that a single man in possession of a good fortune" to lay emphasis on wealthy men.


One opening line allows us to look at deeper meaning.