It has been said that Billy is part of the 'limbo generation' of the 1960s.
It has been said that Billy is part of the 'limbo generation' of the 1960s. One aspect of this period was the replacement of 19th century slums with monotonous council housing estates in which there was little sense of community. If families became dysfunctional there were few people who knew or cared. The men and women had repetitive jobs; the children attended comprehensive schools that were so large that the teachers had little chance to get to know individuals, and the children came home to empty houses. They had few ambitions and, as Hines shows in this novel, the young men spent their free time "roamin' t'streets doin' nowt ... just roam about t'estate muckin' about, fed up to t'teeth an' frozen." Hence the idea of a 'limbo' generation suspended between pre-war poverty and post-war prosperity. For families on such estates, supportive relationships were often replaced by indifference to each other's needs, or by violence and abuse by those who saw no prospect of getting out of the narrow limits of the lives they led. Such a family is the Casper family, as we can see if we consider the relationships between Billy and his mother, and between him and his elder brother, Jud. The main difference between Billy's relationship with Kes and with members of his family is that Kes builds him up by bringing out the best in him, while his mother and brother's treatment of him
Snowdrops - Exploring
Daniel Lainchbury "Snowdrops" Task: - Explore "Snowdrops". Targets: - 1) Consider the structure and language. 2) What does the writer want to achieve. 3) Your personal views are essential. "Snowdrops" is a story based on child like wonder, emotion and discovery. After reading the story many times in depth I have discovered that there is a lot more to the story than there aperies for example contrasts and comparison in the short story that liven it up quite significantly, like use of colours, temperature, descriptions, textures and creative writing are all used to create a certain atmosphere. What is the story about? If you were to read the story once you would probably say it was about a schoolteacher that all the children like and she was seeing a man who died. But if you look closely at the structure of the story then you will see there is more than that, it is about a child who cant wait to see the snowdrops in the school garden and when he finally see's then he sees they are not all that amazing, which is true to life in many respects because nothing appears to be a good as it is made out to be. Descriptive writing is one of the strongest things in this piece; it is used to draw the reader into the same state of mind of the writer. 'Today Miss Webster is going to show them the snowdrops growing in the little three cornered garden outside the school-keeper's
A Kestral For A Knave.
In my view, education in those days was satisfactory but the methods of teaching were very bad. An example of this is shown when Mr Sugden unfairly asks to re-take a penalty after the first attempt at it had failed because the pupil in the goal saved it. There are very good teachers in the school. Mr Farthing, one of them, understands his students and listens to what the student has to say. You can tell Mr Farthing understands his students because when Billy had a fight he rectified the matter in favour of Billy because of the problems Billy has to deal with. He didn't send them both them both to Mr Gryce as some teachers would have so both students get the stick. After the fight Mr Farthing gives Billy a real chance to shine he lets him tell the entire class how he trained his hawk. This speech gave Billy confidence because at the start of the speech Billy had a slight reluctance to share his feeling with the rest of the class. The whole class was interested in the speech about Falconry and several students asked him questions on it at the end. This was one of the high points in the book as no one cussed him or laughed at him. This alone proves that Billy is very bright and has a lot of confidence because he stole the falconry book from a store just to train a hawk (not normal). Billy can express what ever he has to say aloud brilliantly but using hand gestures and