Happy New Year

We thought again about writing critical essays – about how you must answer the question by using the SECT procedure – or something like it.


You have a new literature (“critical”) essay for homework:

Consider carefully the ending of a novel you know well.

Discuss in what ways the author has prepared for the ending in the earlier part of the novel.


You could write this essay by concentrating on the structure of the novel – the two station scenes – and how the theme of trust is seen very differently in each of them. You would obviously have to deal with some of the bits in between as you did this, but you would try to pick out the bits that are relevant to both, ie you’d need to discuss the characterisation of Barnaby and Sophia and some related matters.

You might also want to bring in other themes, eg change/families/etc.

You might like to bring in some symbols, eg the Twinform and the importance of money.

You would need, I think, to deal briefly with the Renascence School, so that you could bring in the earlier mention of the sonnet (“When in disgrace”) and then the importance of the sonnet on the last page. This could also be seen as part of the structure – preparing the reader to understand his sudden realisation that he may love Martine.

Remember to SECT! Critical essays should be about 700 words.

We then began to read “A View from the Bridge” (please buy this if you haven’t yet done so) and got to page 33 (in the Penguin edition – where Rodolpho first sings).

We noticed the emphasis, in this play about Italians, on the themes of justice and honour.

We also observed that Alfieri, the lawyer who’s also a narrator, makes a clear link between the way that people end up behaving in this play and the way they used to behave in Ancient Rome

or Greece.

Most of the time we “settle for half”, he says – unlike in the days of Al Capone, the gangster. But just occasionally – we don’t.

And that’s when things “run their bloody course”. He makes it clear that this play isn’t going to end well: it’s as if it’s already happened and he’s just showing it to us.

We notice Eddie’s extreme protectiveness of his niece Catherine – normal fatherly feelings or a bit over the top? – and the slight tension between Eddie and his wife Beatrice. Beatrice’s cousins arrive and Eddie gets stressed when Rodolpho sings. Is this because he’s nervous about the noise, or is Eddie anxious that Catherine seems to be interested in Rodolpho? Would any man want his almost-daughter to get involved with an illegal immigrant?

This is Rodolpho's song. Listen to it. Why did Arthur Miller choose it?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uZAy-GW1fek&feature=PlayList&p=39A4F48CA7E8B9F7&index=19

Peg that tent

I was going to do some poetry yesterday but attendance was rather small, so I didn’t, but be ready for some on the first day back – and also we’ll start “A View from the Bridge”, so do have this with you.

In this week’s class we thought about that literature essay (please do hand it in if you haven’t yet…) and I gave out an exemplar essay (written by me, so obviously I think it’s quite good).

The essay question was:

Choose a novel in which a central character’s experiences lead to a deeper understanding not only of others but also of himself or herself.

Discuss the ways in which the character is made to attain self-knowledge and a better understanding of other people.

So it means:

Show HOW (ie talk about the writer’s techniques) the writer shows us that …

Barnaby comes to understand himself more (which involves saying what he thought of himself at the beginning, when this changes and what he thinks of himself by the end…)

and how she shows us that…

Barnaby comes to understand others (eg Sophia, his mother, Martine – not necessarily all of these)

The best way to do it, in my opinion, is simply to start at the beginning of the novel and stop at the end – not telling the story apart from when necessary - though some minimal storytelling will be helpful - but picking out ONLY the bits about not understanding (himself/others), beginning to understand (himself/others ) and then understanding (himself/others).

And you need to remember all the time to keep SECTing or something along these lines, and especially to keep pinning the essay down to the question.

I said yesterday – and it’s an analogy that I find quite helpful – that you might like to think of your essay as a tent that keeps trying to fly away (this is when you waffle off the subject).

Read over what you write as you write it, and pin it down to the question by brief comments to MAKE it relevant, eg “Here we see another example of conflict… This shows vivid creation of character…. This shows a turning point…” – depending on what the question is, of course. Use the words of the question, or variations of them as tent pegs! And these “pegs” can be added afterwards if you forget to put them in at the time - as long as you can squeeze them in.

(You have no idea how hard it is to find pictures of tents flying away. For some strange reason, most people don't seem to stop to take photos of this. Presumably they're busy chasing the tent.)

Remember that you may know why you wrote something, but the marker isn’t a mind reader. Be very definite about making the relevance of what you’ve written very obvious to the dimmest examiner.

If you weren’t at class, email me and I’ll send you the sample essay.

Do some revision after New Year but have a good holiday and I’ll see you on January 7.

Barnaby, Sophia and Picasso

Today we continued the Close Reading about the Butte de Warlencourt: the writer thinks that many of the young men who died in the war were potential poets like...

... Ezra Pound (he survived) or potential painters like...

Picasso (so did he). The writer blamed generals like

Earl Haig of Britain and

Joffre of France for mismanaging the war. He said that they "exacerbated" it (what does this mean?) and that the press were "compliant" (in what way?)

We then read chapter 7 of "PP" in which we noticed that time has passed and Barnaby is very very keen on Sophia. Find a quotation to illustrate this and post it in a comment.

Barnaby likes Sophia for her organisational skills; she likes him for... what?

Sophia meets the Kazmerow grandparents. What do we discover that Barnaby and his mother have in common?

Later, his clients are getting ill, dying or at least tidying up in case they die. Even Maud May, his "Tallulah" client, has broken her hip.

She presumably reminds him of Talullah Bankhead.

Sophia wangles a meeting between her mother and Barnaby. What is her mother's reaction? How does Sophia behave? Why, do you think?

Post a comment answering at least one of the questions/requests for quotation above.

Homework - the rest of the Butte questions.

Inca gold and patchwork quilts

Today we started with Close Reading and I reminded you (again) about how to answer imagery questions – some of those who handed in homework last week didn’t get it quite right. (In fact, no one who handed in the homework got the full 2 marks.)

I suggested that you try the formula:

“Just as… [literal idea]
so [what the writer is really meaning here].”

This gives us:

Just as it would be astonishing for an outsider to come across Incas nonchalantly using precious gold for pots and pans to use in the kitchen

so the writer was amazed to hear astonishing stories told by his relatives - while they seemed not to think there was anything remarkable about them at all.

We then read the rest of the Alan Bennett Close Reading passage, which is to be finished for homework.

Before starting “A Patchwork Planet” we read Shakespeare’s “A Consolation”, in which the poet thinks of times when he’s been at his lowest ebb and then – “Haply I think on Thee” – perhaps he remembers his beloved – and he’s happy again.

In chapter 4 of “A Patchwork Planet” we read about Barnaby’s 30th birthday dinner at his parents’. We learned about his mother’s background; more about his occasional irresistible urges to mess up; more (in flashback – part of the structure of the novel) about his arrest for burglary and the consequences of this. He tells us about being sent to Renascence by his parents, and having to learn “A Consolation”. The poem makes him miserable because he too feels “in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” – but has no “Thee” to love him.

There is quite a lot in this chapter about change (not just on Barnaby’s part: who else has changed?) and the symbolism of clothes. Then there’s the third turning point in the book. The first was Barnaby’s going to meet up with Sophia; the second was his meeting up with Opal. What’s the third?

Homework: finish Alan Bennett Close Reading; read ch 5 of “PP”; do Language Skills book pages 7-9; and comment on this blog - if nothing else, answer the two questions I ask above.