Exploring the language – Quote relay

1. Exploring the language – Quote relay • Work in groups to explore 7 key quotes from the short stories • Collect each quote only on competition of the last • Stick down the quotes on sugar paper and annotate around them • Read and analyse the quotes exploring what you learn about the character/s or settings • You will need to analyse at word and sentence level • You will need to consider meanings and connotations • You may be able to link the quote to themes and ideas • You may also want to link the stories to key moments in the text and consider the structural significance • This is a race- the group to finish first with strong analysis of each quote wins 5 merits each! • Each group will have 3 trade cards. You can trade these for help however you will incur a 3 minute time penalty per card. You can ask for help from myself or another group. • If you ask for help from another group you must hand over a trade card. That group will then have 3 minutes taken off their completion time.

2. But they don’t need a compass after all. They are adventurers, after all. Compasses are things that boys and dads tend to have, but which, when they are alert and strong at heart, they can leave behind. It is no accident that they both left their compasses behind.

3. But they don’t need a compass after all. They are adventurers, after all. Compasses are things that boys and dads tend to have, but which, when they are alert and strong at heart, they can leave behind. It is no accident that they both left their compasses behind.

4. But they don’t need a compass after all. They are adventurers, after all. Compasses are things that boys and dads tend to have, but which, when they are alert and strong at heart, they can leave behind. It is no accident that they both left their compasses behind.

5. But they don’t need a compass after all. They are adventurers, after all. Compasses are things that boys and dads tend to have, but which, when they are alert and strong at heart, they can leave behind. It is no accident that they both left their compasses behind.

6. But they don’t need a compass after all. They are adventurers, after all. Compasses are things that boys and dads tend to have, but which, when they are alert and strong at heart, they can leave behind. It is no accident that they both left their compasses behind.

7. On a hot, sweltering night in the middle of March when the mosquitoes were in their reign of terrorism, there was a little village where the villagers kept to themselves in little huts, sleeping deeply and dreaming their dreams that rarely amounted to anything.

8. In the plummeting darkness, the man’s own anxiety began to mount. He could feel it gathering in the blackening chill: the aching certainty that already, only one year on from the separation, he has lost his son, his child.

9. The first poem he sent me was about a bird in a coal mine. He sent me the English translation. This bird flew down the main shaft and got lost in the tunnels underground, then it sang and sang until it died. Everyone heard it singing, but no one could find it.

10. But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fourteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever.

11. A small boy touched his arm, begging. Gnarled fist, black skin turned grey from malnutrition, one eye clogged with thick mucous. He flinched at the unpleasant touch, felt guilty, fumbled in his pockets and started to take out a two-hundred dinar note.

12. A little white house peeping over a hill, with a stream at the bottom of a crisp green lawn and an orchard with old apple trees and a brown pony. And she would walk in the long grass in this orchard in a straw hat with these two children, a boy and a girl, children with fair shiny hair like hers, and there’d be this man.

13. We all shook our heads again. The man loosened his collar, wiped a trickle of perspiration from his forehead. He caught my glance and smiled. I didn’t smile back.

14. The first poem he sent me was about a bird in a coal mine. He sent me the English translation. This bird flew down the main shaft and got lost in the tunnels underground, then it sang and sang until it died. Everyone heard it singing, but no one could find it. • Why has the narrator remembered the first poem in such detail? What is significant here? How does she feel about the Polish teacher? • What kind of man is he that he’d send her the ‘English translation’? • What is the bird symbolic of? (consider her cultural background and her position in society).

15. In the plummeting darkness, the man’s own anxiety began to mount. He could feel it gathering in the blackening chill: the aching certainty that already, only one year on from the separation, he has lost his son, his child. • What is the man anxious about? How does he feel about being on a trip with his son? Why does he feel like this? • What is so significant about “plummeting darkness” and “blackening chill”? How does this create an atmosphere? How does this reinforce the man’s feelings? • What does “only one year on from the separation” tell you about how quickly the relationship between father and son has diminished? • Why does the quote end in a list “he has lost his son, his child”?

16. A small boy touched his arm, begging. Gnarled fist, black skin turned grey from malnutrition, one eye clogged with thick mucous. He flinched at the unpleasant touch, felt guilty, fumbled in his pockets and started to take out a two-hundred dinar note. • How is the description of the boy made frightening? Think about word choice ‘gnarled fist’… • How does this represent the man’s fears and concerns about going to Sudan? • Why does the man feel guilty? Consider his cultural heritage and the theme of identity.

17. But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fourteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever. • What comment is being made about the views and feelings of the adults in this quote? • What is significant about ‘disappearing into the crowd’? Consider the theme of love and relationships here. • Why does this section end with ‘Forever’? What lasting impression do you have of love and relationships?

18. On a hot, sweltering night in the middle of March when the mosquitoes were in their reign of terrorism, there was a little village where the villagers kept to themselves in little huts, sleeping deeply and dreaming their dreams that rarely amounted to anything. • When considering the conditions in which these characters live, what is significant about the month? • What atmosphere in created through the use of personification? • Why the repetition of ‘little’ and ‘villagers’? • What does “dreaming their dreams that rarely amounted to anything” suggest about the world in which these characters live?

19. A little white house peeping over a hill, with a stream at the bottom of a crisp green lawn and an orchard with old apple trees and a brown pony. And she would walk in the long grass in this orchard in a straw hat with these two children, a boy and a girl, children with fair shiny hair like hers, and there’d be this man. • How realistic are Sandra’s dreams for the future? What do they suggest about her? • Why has the writer decided to include references to colour? What are the connotations? • How does the writer use references to nature? What effect does this have on readers? • What is the significance of ‘and there’d be this man’?

20. We all shook our heads again. The man loosened his collar, wiped a trickle of perspiration from his forehead. He caught my glance and smiled. I didn’t smile back. • “We all shook our heads again”. What does this suggest about the relationship between the characters? • Why does the narrator focus on the man? What do we learn about him? • Why does the narrator not smile back? Consider events in the text and the theme of growing up.