Both stories examine themes of poverty. The short story talks about the boy’s self-esteem and pride and gives us a start, middle, and, end. I felt I knew more about the boy as I read each page. I felt sorry for him as his mother tried to get him new clothes and he didn’t want them because he would be labelled at school as ‘the poor boy’ this made him seem a little vain. It sets the scenes with bold descriptions of the boy in his class. ‘The ragged woollen jersey he wore was fastened loosely over his shoulder with a rusted safety pin.’ This is in the first paragraph so right away we know this boy isn’t so well off and has as much as what the other children have which is a shame. Later on in the story his mother received a letter to collect new clothes for the boys, ‘clutching the letter like a weapon in her hand’ this metaphor describes how tight and safely she held onto this letter. It shows it meant a lot to her and she knew she couldn’t lose it, like a weapon.
In the Timothy Winters poem we see metaphors, similes and literal text. The first metaphor we see is in the first paragraph ‘eyes as wide as a football-pool’ this simile is describing the boy’s eyes. ‘Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters, a blitz of a boy’ this metaphor also describes him. Sadly It is not the nicest of terms used to describe someone but it helps us see that this young boy is not cared, his teeth must be rotten and he looks awfully scruffy. The two techniques give more of a dramatic picture together; this grabs your attention to read on. In the fifth paragraph it reads ‘Timothy’s dosed with an aspirin’ this literal sentence saddens the reader, the aspirin is for his pain of sleeping on the kitchen floor in a sack but also to send him off to sleep. The boy is obviously neglected and left to look after himself.
After reading both pieces of writing I think the short story ‘clothes’ was more effective because it was longer than the poem and gave me more insight as to how poor the boy really was. I got a lot more from it and wanted to know more about other children in poverty and how they deal with it. It was also more effective because it had a story line and more than one character. I think this made it more interesting and exciting. The poem ‘Timothy Winters’ was short and to the point it carried strength, but didn’t keep me as interested. It made me feel sorry for the boy but not as much as the short story did. It focused on one day in his life. He was unaware of how poor he was and that his parents didn’t want to care for him. It was a good piece of writing but not quite as effective. I think ‘clothes’ made a greater impact because it had more characters and wasn’t totally focused on one scene.
I enjoyed reading the short story and poem to compare for this essay. It has made me more aware for people in poverty and how much it can affect them. I have explained techniques used in each and which one had more effectiveness and a greater impact.
