The Club Footed Grocer

Year 11 English: G C S E Coursework Write a study of The Club Footed Grocer, answering the following question: 'While reading this story, one is captivated by the sense of mystery, but when you are finished, what remains in the mind is the pure, unadulterated greed represented by the Uncle'. How far do you agree with this assessment of the e Club Footed Grocer? This short story is written in the first person by John, the nephew of Stephen Maple who describes his uncle as someone 'who had been at the same time the most successful and the least respectable of our family'. Throughout this piece the reader is gripped by curiosity and a sense of mystery and confusion presented through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's vivid imagery and atmosphere. The way in which the writer adds small mysterious pieces of information to encourage the reader to turn the page. The background to the undertone of the story is shown in the descriptions of his uncle attacked in Stepney, London and was left with 3 broken ribs and a broken leg, which healed so badly that it, was 3 inches shorter than the other. He is described as having a 'a large grocery in Stepney, which did a curious mixed business. Not always as we have heard of a very savoury character with the riverside and seafaring people.' This evokes the feeling that he has a shady and rather seedy business and is sometimes on the wrong side of

  • Word count: 1697
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What is the John Lewis Partnership?

John Lewis A briefly description of John Lewis John Lewis is one of the biggest retailer shops in the United Kingdom. The John Lewis department stores are famous for offering high quality goods at reasonable prices. They will introduce some innovative products over a period of time in order to retain its value customers. Its annual turnover is around 4 pounds billion. John Lewis offers over a million different lines. There are electrical goods, fashion, the latest IT hardware, toys, books, and more. In 1864, John Lewis set up the first shop in London Oxford Street. And in 1937, the company bought Waitrose and now became a part of John Lewis as well. They have the highly motivated workforce which they share the partnership between 27 department stores (include Scotland) and 136 Waitrose food shops. Who are the competitors of John Lewis department stores? This essay will only focus on the John Lewis Department excluding Waitrose. According to the interview with the Merchandise Manager in the John Lewis (Kingston), the biggest competitor is Marks and Spencer, followed by Debenhams and House of Fraser respectively. What is the John Lewis Partnership? The John Lewis Partnership works with all its permanent employees (excluding the part- time workers). They are referred to as 'partners' of the John Lewis. They are the co-owners of the business and have direct financial

  • Word count: 2840
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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1 years later, the aftermath of 'the shooting', based on a true story.

1/2 years later, the aftermath of 'the shooting', based on a true story It started off as a normal school day; I arrived late to school, at 8:50 am, and was shouted at by Mrs Robinson. The date was 23rd June 2000. I was in Year 8 at the time. I went to the first 2 lessons as usual, and then it was break. I went into the form room to find virtually the whole class gathered around John Smith, a fellow pupil in my form. He had a very sophisticated looking BB gun in his hand. It fired little round, coloured pellets. He was showing off this gun to everyone, firing pellets at distant objects or out of the window. The gun was a pistol, non-automatic. It was amazingly powerful though; it could easily break glass at close range, and smash windows. This gun was a Desert Eagle. The bullets it fired went so fast, that you only saw them once they'd hit something. He had also brought another BB gun, except this one was a semi-automatic M16 sub-machine gun. It could unload a whole magazine of these little round, coloured pellets in a matter of seconds. Another boy, Herbert Jenkins, picked up this gun, and without any caution, shouted at me across the form room, "You'd better run Abhishek," He smiled menacingly, pointing this M16 gun at me. I tried to dodge the continuous reign of pellets, as he unloaded the whole magazine of 36 pellets at me. I got caught and tried to protect myself

  • Word count: 759
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparing and Contrasting Aldous Huxley’s and H.G Wells’ Views of the Future With reference to “Brave New World” and “The Time Machine”.

Comparing and Contrasting Aldous Huxley's and H.G Wells' Views of the Future With reference to "Brave New World" and "The Time Machine". "....They're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma, which you go and chuck out of the window in the name of liberty...." This quotation from the novel "Brave New World," by Aldous Huxley depicts a world where people are divided into castes and exhaustively conditioned to perform specific tasks. Set in the distant future, this novel was written in the 1930's. The author's views of the future arise from what he observed of Hitler's efforts to promote a superior German race with blond hair and blue eyes. He believed in a racist brand of fascism. This political system is used in the setting of "Brave New World." The World State is divided into ten zones each run by a resident World Controller. Each of the World Controllers believes that people who are conditioned are abnormal and inferior. To maintain the stability of the World State, biological engineering and thorough conditioning is carried out. The World State is stable because the people in this "strange society are conditioned" to be happy with what they have. Contentedly, the people fulfil their social roles in life without experiencing pain or unhappiness. During childhood, methods such as

  • Word count: 2332
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How effective is Brave New World as a Satire?

How effective is Brave New World as a Satire? By the word Satire, I understand that it is the use of mockery or exaggeration to expose faults in a subject. Huxley's subject is unclear as he himself, in the introduction, was said to be unsure whether he was writing a satire, a prophecy or a blueprint and so the subject matter is open to interpretation. I believe that Huxley was trying to satirize the world around him and the way that it was heading. Due to this being my understanding of the subject, I believe that the satire is undermined by the fact that the novel is too topical. A number of references, names, and allusions in Brave New World could be missed by the casual reader. Huxley draws upon his own extensive background in history, economics, and science and often assumes the reader is immediately aware of the significance of a particular word. For instance we don't necessarily understand the significance of the name "Mustapha Mond" reading it in this modern age. People reading this novel when it was first published, however, would have seen that the mention of the surname "Mond" was a reference to the English industrialist and politician Sir Alfred Mond. He played a leading part in the centralization of the English chemical industry in his lifetime and so for Huxley to use his name would have been noticed and acknowledged more than our acceptance of it as just a

  • Word count: 2148
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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An Armadillo that Created the Perfect Father

An Armadillo that Created the Perfect Father Dan Needham is a very important character for the development of John Irving's novel especially for one of the book's theme. Tabitha John's mother met Dan for the first time in the good old Boston and Maine (Irving 40). Harriet Wheelwright, Tabitha's mother informs the reader about the origin of the Needham family referring to it as a traditional name that could be traced back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Irving 43). Dan Needham studied in Harvard and he worked as a drama teacher and a theater director in the Gravesend Academy (Irving 43). From the first time Tabitha's family especially John heard about the existence of Dan he knew he was special. John refers to him in this way because he had seen many of his mothers "dates" before, but he had never seen her mother referring to somebody so openly, telling them she liked him and that she wanted the family to meet him (Irving 45). Physically Dan Needham was also different from the rest of Tabitha's "dates" who were good looking, Dan was tall and gawky, his hair was curly and colored, and he had a sizable bottom and wore eye glasses that didn't fit his face. His cloth didn't fit either, the jacket was to tight and the sleeves very short, his trousers were big and baggy and his hips were prominent and "womanly"(Irving 46). Even tough Dan was a little clumsy; he was very courteous

  • Word count: 782
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Why do most scholars thinks that the author was one of the 12? - The Fourth Gospel 'according to John'.

Why do most scholars thinks that the author was one of the 12? From the second century, the Fourth Gospel has said to be 'according to John' and there is, therefore, a long Christian tradition that the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, was in some way responsible for its writing, either personally or by giving his authority to the writer of it. Firstly, there is a lot of internal evidence to show that the author of the Fourth Gospel was an eyewitness. Hendriksen shows that there are many parts of the gospel that give specific details which would prove that the author was there at the time. For example, in John 1:39 it says: '"Come and see" he said. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place, and they stayed there the rest of the day' This piece of evidence implies that the person who wrote the gospel was an eyewitness and therefore could have been one of the 12 disciples. Another example is in John 3:24 when it says: 'This was before John was put into prison' This shows that writer remembering something that had happened, almost reminiscing about the events that had taken place. This further strengthens the case for the author being there at the time and may have been one of the 12. This was also stated by the scholar Tyler who thought that because of the eyewitness indications it must be one of the 12. Fenton also

  • Word count: 872
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"For which two characters in 'Brave New World' do you feel most sympathy? Consider in your answer the part played by the society in which each character has been raised and the effect of that society's expectations and values upon the individual."

"For which two characters in 'Brave New World' do you feel most sympathy? Consider in your answer the part played by the society in which each character has been raised and the effect of that society's expectations and values upon the individual." Bernard Marx and John "the savage" are both outcasts in their societies. Haunted by their own inadequacies and inability to fit in. They are the two characters in "Brave New World" whom, for numerous reasons and in many ways, the reader can feel the most sympathy for. Bernard's physical appearance was one of his main insecurities and so he can be sympathised with because of it. As an Alpha male, society expected him to be taller, better looking and more masculine than he was. Bernard therefore had felt throughout his life he had to prove himself to be a true Alpha and to try and ignore the rumours about him. Fanny said, P36 "They say somebody made a mistake, when he was still in the bottle - thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood-surrogate. That's why he's so stunted." So Bernard was made to feel different and the humiliation he felt was almost painful, which is known by these lines, P54 "Contact with members of the lower castes always reminded him painfully of this physical inadequacy." These next lines show more embarrassment that he feels, P54 "Each time he found himself looking on the level, instead of

  • Word count: 2043
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Crucible: To what extent is John and Elizabeth's relationship the main focus of the play?

The Crucible To what extent is John and Elizabeth's relationship the main focus of the play? In this essay I am going to discus to what extent John and Elizabeth's relationship is the focus of the Crucible. The play was set in 1962, in a small, American village called Salem. As Salem was governed by a Theocracy, the whole village was extremely religious. After reading the Crucible I think that John and Elizabeth's relationship is the main focus of the play, we can see in each act how their feelings and emotions towards their relation ship changes and progresses throughout the play. In Act 1 we are introduced to John Proctor. We find out that he is a farmer in his middle thirties and that he is known, and respected throughout the village as a good, honest man. We also learn that John has committed adultery with his former servant - Abigail Williams, niece of Reverend Paris. John deeply regrets this, and, as we learn from act one he wishes to no longer peruse his relation ship with Abigail any further; "I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again!" Abigail responds to this remark in anger, not being able to bear the fact that John no longer wants her. She calls Elizabeth a "cold, snivelling woman" and accuses her of spreading lies "She is blackening my name in the village, she is spreading lies about me!" Immediately John responds in defence of his wife "You'll

  • Word count: 1454
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Personal writing - I looked across the hall and saw him sitting there shaking in the corner. He was scared of what they were gonna do to him.

I looked across the hall and saw him sitting there shaking in the corner. He was scared of what they were gonna do to him. If it weren't for my intervention he'd have ended up in the infirmary. Those twisted wardens beat the poor kid to a pulp and it doesn't help him that he's an asthmatic. He's only a young kid, not much older than my son. I suppose that's why I stick up for him, because he reminds me of my son, Alexander. God, what I'd give to see Alex's smiling face again, but that's just a dream, I aint gonna ever see his face again. He aint allowed to step one foot in this prison, because he keeps trying to break me out. He just a daft fool who misses his pop. JP or John was a popular fellow with the other inmates. He was seen as the comical one. Always tryin' to brighten people's up, by cracking a joke or doin' somethin' funny. For god sakes even the parole officer likes him and he was taught to hate all of us. However the only person who don't like him outside is that bastard who framed his ass. Even the parole officer knows he was framed, he just aint got the balls to stand up against the judge. He says, 'The defendant needs sufficient evidence and an alibi to prove his innocence.' JP has both of them, but not on him. My plan is to get them by the time of my execution. Didn't I mention we are on death row. Well I got just over two months and this is gonna be a tough

  • Word count: 2456
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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