Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[janechou111]

"....Already his footprints in the driveway had filled and disappeared."

--p.2, The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

What confuses me in the sentence is the usage of "fill."
Why isn't it "...had been filled...."?

Thank you in advance.

Jane

[pugachevV]

Fill can mean to make full, or become full.
Here it's used in its become full sense. I take that to mean it has been filled by a natural process, such as snow.
The author could have chosen to say, "had been filled"; I would then expect a reference to what, or by whom, the footsteps had been filled.
e.g. His footsteps had already been filled by blowing snow. Or his footsteps had already been filled by Jimmy with a bucket of asphalt.
So, the difference is very slight and you are correct in that had been filled could have been used.