Sentence topic passive

Sentence topic passive

Look at these two sentences:

• Herman Melville was an American essayist, novelist and poet.
• He also worked in many different jobs during his life.

The subject of the first sentence (Herman Melville) is also the subject of the second sentence (He).

Now read these two sentences:

• Melville wrote the classic novel Moby Dick in 1851.
• However, it was considered a failure during his lifetime.

The passive is used in this second sentence to continue talking about Moby Dick. It is the subject of this last sentence and is also the object of the first sentence (substituting Moby Dick).