Transcript Anthology B – the short stories

Anthology B – the short stories
CHARLOTTE GRAY
Friday, 17 July 2015
From: Charlotte Gray
• Read the story.
• In 5 minutes, make a list of all the “facts” this
quick reading has enabled you to recognise
about the story – setting, characters, ideas,
images, language and so on.
• Share these with your neighbour and expand
your lists.
Thoughts, feelings and atmosphere...
Detail
Response
The deportees have a postcard on
which to write a final message
Final – before departure or before
death?
Camp orders prohibit posting the
cards, so they must be thrown out of
the train
Only two or three pencils survived the
barracks search
The conditions in which these children
are living are barely fit for animals
Obviously there are many examples. Explore the whole text and do not
restrict yourselves to these five choices.
People
• How many main groups of people are there in
the story?
• What role does each group play in the story?
• Complete the table on the next slide to help you
to understand the roles of the characters in the
story.
People
Key Question
Comment
Key quotation
Andre – the older
child.
What is his
importance to the
passage?
Faulks focuses on
what he sees and
hears – he begins to
understand...
“It came to Andre
that she was not
looking in hatred”
Jacob and the other
younger children
How does the way
they are described
and the way they act
affect the reader?
Adult deportees
Do the y behave
differently to the
children?
The Jewish orderly
Betrayer or helper?
Bread women
Who are these
women?
Terrible ferocity
woman – a mother
of a child deportee
What does her look
mean?
French police
What responsibility
do they bear?
Bus driver
Just doing his job?
Mothers who have
not been deported?
Language
• Does the writing reflect the anger and pain felt
in the story?
• Are there large quantities of emotive language
choices?
• What might the effect be of a more understated
approach to this subject matter?
• I have provided you with four examples on the
next slide... Increase this list.
Use of language
Example
Effect
Contrasting words
“... The soft bloom of his
cheek laid, uncaring, in the
dung.”
Emphasises the difference
between the children and
the conditions... Consider
also the effect of “uncaring”
Weighty words
“trembling” (used of the
buses)
Ironically applies to the
people and foreshadows the
terrors ahead
Movement
“A sudden ripple, a
quickening of muscle and
nerve”
The ripple implies fast
movement and quickening
picks this up – also,
remember that quickening
has a second meaning –
coming alive.
Complex and heightened
The look of “terrible
ferocity”
Emphasises the depth of
feeling felt by the woman.
Typical questions
• How does the writer build up strong feelings of
fear and uncertainty?
You should write about:
• What the adults who are being deported do
• What Andre does and thinks
• What the other people do
• The way language is used to create effect.
• Refer closely to the text and use brief
quotations.