Which element of style most strongly evokes sympathy for the narrator in these lines from the passage?

i never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to eliza, john, and georgiana reed.

word choice

Explanation:

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 diction, that is deliberate choice of words.

mark twain, real name samuel langhorne clemens, was an american writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. among his novels are the adventures of tom sawyer and its sequel, the adventures of huckleberry finn, the latter often called "the great american novel". wikipedia