Snowdrops (short story) analysis

What happens in Snowdrops? This story is important as much for what we do not learn directly as for the surface narrative. The story appears to be about a boy and his day at school. He goes to a primary school in Wales - in a town that seems like the author's hometown of Merthyr. Apart from a few very specific details that tell us this, the town could be almost anywhere. His teacher has promised the class that they can go outside to look at the snowdrops that are now coming up. While the children are looking at the snowdrops, they can see a funeral procession passing the school. The boys' parents have spoken earlier about a young man, killed in a motorbike accident, and it is his funeral. Evidently the teacher knows this, for she stands watching and crying. The story that Leslie Norris does not tell directly, but tells indirectly by hints and clues, is about the love between the young man who has died and the teacher, Miss Webster. The themes of this story The title of the story suggests one of its themes - of course it is about snowdrops literally. But for the reader and for the children in the narrative, snowdrops symbolize the renewal of life that comes in the spring, or perhaps eternal life beyond the grave for those who have died. We also see, in the contrast of the adult conversation and the viewpoint of the child the idea of childhood and growing up. There may be

  • Word count: 3763
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Remind yourself of the passage in 'Neighbors' from 'In the morning he had Arlene call in for him...' to the end of the story. Discuss the significance of this to the story as a whole.

Remind yourself of the passage in 'Neighbors' from 'In the morning he had Arlene call in for him...' to the end of the story. Discuss the significance of this to the story as a whole. In the course of your answer: * Look closely at the effects of the writing; * Comment on how this passage relates to the test's methods and concerns This extract is placed after Bill's second visit to the Stone's apartment. Carver's view on women is very interesting in Short Cuts. The way that Bill gets Arlene to "call in for him" in the morning suggests that women are there to serve men or are somehow below men. This theme is carried out throughout the book in many different situations. Bill "[tries] to start a book" which shows how obsessed he has become with the Stone's apartment. At first it seems as though Bill is merely a voyeur in their vacated house, but this quote suggests that he has in fact lost interest in his own life. He goes out for a walk and "[feels] better", somehow, by getting out of his own house he has felt better. What has he felt better from? Has his own home caused him discomfort, maybe he feels that he cannot live his own life anymore without feeling that it is somehow incomplete and the Stone's vacated home is needed to fill this gap. Bill enters the Stone's apartment "He [sees] everything", when the cat appears he "[strokes] her twice and [carries] her into the

  • Word count: 1108
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"'We Need to Talk About Kevin' presents us with unsympathetic characters who nevertheless attract our sympathy." To what extent do you agree with this judgement?

"We Need to Talk About Kevin presents us with unsympathetic characters who nevertheless attract our sympathy." To what extent do you agree with this judgement? In the novel we are presented with three characters who are potentially unsympathetic, but who do seem also to attract our sympathy: Eva, Kevin and Franklin. The epistolary nature of the novel strongly influences our perception of the characters - we can only see them through Eva. The reader is not the intended audience for these letters and thus finds themselves baffled by such images as "But since we've been separated, I may most miss coming home to deliver the narrative curiosities of my day, the way a cat might lay mice at your feet: the small, humble offerings that couples proffer after foraging in separate backyards" - this is not aimed at us but based on a shared experience or private joke that Eva and Franklin would understand and is therefore frustrating. Eva's use of sophisticated vocabulary is potentially irritating because it comes across as pretentious, but the detached tone this creates is in fact rather admirable - it allows her to avoid self-pity: for example, when talking of the poor heating in her "Tinkertoy duplex" she says "awareness that there is no reserve permeates my ablutions with disquiet". She also refuses to give Kevin the recognition he wants for "Thursday" ("The atrocity sounds torn

  • Word count: 3126
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How far do you think Ethan Frome himself is responsible for his tragedy?

Q. How far do you think Ethan Frome himself is responsible for his tragedy? A: Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, published in 1911, was a departure from her other works that were primarily concerned with the privileged New York Society and its hypocrisy. Critics have agreed that Ethan Frome was probably one of the most autobiographical of Wharton's works because it talked about an illicit affair while Wharton herself was going through one at that time. Wharton probably wanted the people to understand her and her actions and sympathize with her. She does this, in the book, by drawing our sympathy towards Ethan who is trapped in a lonely and desolate farmland with a wife he does not even like. Through her depiction of Ethan, Wharton, perhaps, wants us to see how the surroundings and circumstances can influence our actions and behaviour. There are strong traces of Determinism and Naturalism in this novel as Wharton herself was a believer in it. She, perhaps, also wants us to feel that Ethan's tragedy was inevitable and that it could not be stopped no matter what. I too believe that Ethan's tragedy was inevitable. It could have been stopped long ago yet it was not. I don't think anyone in the novel is to blame. The characters in the novel are all, like Ethan, victims of circumstances but they do, however, determine Ethan's - and perhaps one another's - actions. Throughout the

  • Word count: 3227
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Linda Burnell: Wife, mother, individual. In this passage, we see Mansfields recurring theme of the apparent futility of womens lives through the portrayal of Linda Burnell,

Linda Burnell: Wife, mother, individual. In this passage, we see Mansfield's recurring theme of the apparent futility of women's lives through the portrayal of Linda Burnell, the mother of the family, shown to us by the extensive use of her stream of consciousness. Mansfield also uses this chapter to present Linda's relationship with the male sex and, more specifically, with her husband, Stanley. Linda is in the garden and 'dreams the morning away' - through this, Mansfield presents to us her apparent aimlessness and disinterest in the activities presented to her by life. The scene and place is set first by a large chunk of description of the garden where Linda is lying in her steamer chair. Mansfield uses similes such as 'Each [...] petal shone as if each was the careful work of a loving hand' to add interest to the description and create correlations between the idea of beauty and work; that things can be beautiful and take time but that ultimately, nothing will last forever or hold any real weight at the end of the day. This leads us to the internal conflict of Linda as she comes to terms with how little 'meaning' her life has; she questions 'Why, then, flower at all?' Flowering being the sexual reproduction of plants, we see the parallels between Linda's unwanted children and these wasted flowers. This introduces Mansfield's trademark objective correlative as she

  • Word count: 1152
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Regeneration. Write Sarahs account of her relationship with Billy Prior. You should aim to create and authentic voice of Sarah, which builds on Barkers presentation of her character and captures aspects of the written chosen form, structure and languag

English Coursework Write Sarah's account of her relationship with Billy Prior. You should aim to create and authentic voice of Sarah, which builds on Barkers presentation of her character and captures aspects of the written chosen form, structure and language. This bloody train, how can it possibly take so long to get it moving...And crowds! I just hate them! The constant crying of that baby just seems to irritate every nerve in my body, is it so difficult to satisfy a child, and keep it quiet!? This sickening feeling of being cramped up against bodies is beginning to make me feel as though I just walked back into that awfully retained hospital once again. And that revolting smell of body sweat, from the old man who was just inches away from, physical contact. Well. At least I managed, half suffocated and completely exhausted to spare myself a seat, squeezing me through the little space provided; I practically dragged myself into the nearest seat. Now having a space of my own after, finally catching my breath. Thankfully the train's finally moving, only realizing through the sudden knock of the track; and the clouds of black smoke that continuously belched into the sky. I sat surprisingly relieved, gazed out of the steamed window, searching for desperate need of help. Just as I felt the thought of Billy slip away from my mind; the depressed storm bellowed outside and I

  • Word count: 1340
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Explore the relationship between Paul Morel and his mother.

Explore the relationship between Paul Morel and his mother. What impact does this have on his later relationships? ('Sons and Lovers') "The texture of Paul's relationship with his mother is one of an intimacy so close that the only adequate means of expression are sexual, but its structure is throughout one of social aspiration." John Goode1 It is clearly evident throughout the novel that the relationship Paul and his mother have is not one of any other normal son and mother relationship. It is far too close and suffocating to be portrayed as 'normal'; yet as John Goode has said above, it is a relationship full of social aspiration. Mrs. Morel is determined for her son to be a social success and Paul sees his mother as the one to raise him above the level of the 'coal-pits'. She has the power, intellect and ruthless direction. Mrs. Morel, a 'Puritan', tries to refine and elevate her husband; when she fails she starts to despise him and tries again, first with William and then with Paul. She is a woman of immense strength of character, determination and emotion. Having failed to maintain a healthy and happy relationship with her husband she attempts to regain much of the love she has been deprived of through her sons. Paul proves an easy target for her domination: "...Paul, always rather delicate and quiet, got slimmer, and trotted after his mother like her shadow."

  • Word count: 2254
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Who does Bennett present as a better teacher: Hector or Irwin?

Who does Bennett present as a better teacher: Hector or Irwin? In your response ensure that you: - Use quotation and close analysis of dramatic technique to support your ideas. - Show some awareness of biographical, cultural or historical context. The initial presentation of Irwin is clearly negative. In the opening scene of the play Bennett presents to us a clever but cynical historian, advising MPs how to sell a nasty bill that would restrict trial by jury. Utilising his experience as a TV historian, recommending an "amused tolerance" when faced with cameras. We learn further on in the play that Irwin was a school teacher, employed to aid students with their entrance exams to Oxbridge, and throughout the play Bennett conveys Irwin as a liar, maybe slightly manipulative, and questionable sexuality. Throughout the play, some of Irwin's speech is comparable to the likes of certain revisionist TV historians, such as Andrew Roberts as the nineteen-eighties was the birth of TV historians: "Life only comes alive when contemplating its toilet arrangements." This statement made by Irwin when he is recording his TV show. One could argue that revisionist historians should not be allowed to corrupt the mind of young children because they are assuming that history as it has been traditionally told may not be entirely accurate. During the introduction of the play Bennett

  • Word count: 1533
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Howards End

From the start of chapter 11 to the end How does Forster use contrast and opposition in the aftermath of Mrs Wilcox's death? Throughout the novel, "Howards End," Forster has used contrast as one of the main structural devices to develop the connection between the relationships. Materialism and spiritualism are one of the contrasts in the novel which aid us when viewing the relationships between the Wilcox family. Spiritualism is the 'unseen,' the intangible attachment to objects in life and Mrs Wilcox represents the unseen in the novel even after she has died. Forster is presenting the 'unseen' to us through the colour of nature/images of Mrs Wilcox's funeral and though Mrs Wilcox isn't physically present her spirit still lives on in nature. For example Clouds drifted over it from the west; or the church may have been a ship, high prowed, steering with all its company towards infinity Forster's use of the sea and imagery in this line helps present the 'unseen' and how spiritually Mrs Wilcox will live for an infinite amount of years and that death is just part of the circle of life; that we live this world for another part of life- that there is no beginning or end to life. Contrasting Mrs Wilcox the rest of the Wilcox family represent the 'seen' tangible objects in life like the business world and motorcars their world is filled with 'panic and emptiness.' The language

  • Word count: 1021
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Spies by Michael Frayn. How does Frayn show Stephen's mental progression from childhood to adolescence? You should refer to language, form and structure in your answer.

How does Frayn show Stephen's mental progression from childhood to adolescence? You should refer to language, form and structure in your answer. Frayn uses language, structural change and symbolism throughout the events of the novel to exhibit Stephen's mental descent to adolescence. A theme that reveals itself in the first chapter is perception, and Stephen's perception of reality increases during the bildungsroman. The book begins with the elder Stephen, who is very open about his sensory stimulation in perceiving surroundings. For example: "sheltering the modest houses from the summer sun and making our famously good air fresh" exhibits Stephen being open and attentive of his surroundings, whereas younger Stephen is focused entirely on the notion that Mrs. Hayward is a spy. The extent is made clear by how Stephen links mathematical code into the mystery - "Excellent. So what is the value of x" ... "Into x, the unknown in the equation we have to solve." there is a clear distinction between the sensory states of the elder and younger forms of Stephen, with the former being more integrated to his surroundings, whereas the latter's perception twists simple mathematics into part of a greater puzzle. This is furthered by the opening line of the second chapter - "Everything is as it was" ... "and everything has changed" exhibits that while Stephen's surroundings have persevered,

  • Word count: 1212
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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