O What Is That Sound - Reading Journal

A type question

• Ballad
• Regualr metre
• Stanzas develop time
• In first person
• Use of imagery (red colours)
• Call and Response
• "O" is always at the start of the stanza
• Use of rhyme in every stanza
• Phonetic effects
• AB structure within each stanza
• Quatrain 4 line verse
• Subjective Voice

B type question

• Binary opposition with "brightly" and "weapons"
• Language "dear" is intimate, combined with "the vows you swore" and "I promised to love you, dear" suggets the voices are husband and wife
• Possible wife (1st voice) is in denial and that's why she seems naive / curious
• Possibly about conscription or he's wanted for deserting
• "I must be leaving" goodbye due to execution or conscription?
• The army is deindividualised in the last stanza
• The repeated O seems like and expression of dispair

Musee des Beaux Arts - Reading Journal

Type A question

• Enjambment over different stanzas
• Exphrastic
• Voice of the narrator is the voice of Auden
• Setting - Art gallery
• 3 stanzas, 1 stanza is only 1 line long
• Being subjective about the art (observing and being opinionated)
• Irregular rhyme
• Free verse
• Humorous
• Descriptions of the art create some imagery
• No characters (different to his other poems)

Miss Gee - Reading Journal

Type A

• A comment on religion
• Ideas of irony
• 1st person - partial voice change to 3rd?
• Quatrain - regular metre
• Stanzas develop time in the poem (Similar to 'O what is that sound?')
• Blues tune sets the mood
• Repetition of certain words / phrases
• Clear ABCB structure
• Black comedy
• Objective and omniscient voice

Type B

• Jingle like, Auden wants the poem to be memorable
• Irony about religion and death
• Since she has a deep connection with god maybe this is why she doesn't mind what's done with her body after death
• Main themes; sex, religion, death/life

Possible History Boys essay questions

- Within the comedy there's tragedy and an air of sadness

- Is the play a story about powerplay? E.g Dakin trying to come across as complex, the headmaster needing league table results and

- Links between religion and love, do they intertwine? E.g Scripps talking about god and Posner who is jewish

- Who is the most important character in the play? Posner / Irwin?

- What importance does the music have in the play? Would the play be significantly different without?

How is the comedy created in Act One of 'The History Boys'?

Think about possible essay questions and shape your comments around them. You could consider the serious issues in the play and how characters and themes are developed to explore them.

- Eccentric teachers, flourish and flamboiance can be comedic
- Slapstick humour
- Rivalry between Hector and Irwin

Themes:
- Abuse, violence and sexual
- Elitism / status
- References to shakespearian tradgedies e.g. King Lear, Hamlet

Is the comedy used as a medium for serious issues?
Why do we like Hector even though he's a paedophile?
Are hector and Irwin more similar than they seem?
Are attitudes and reactions the same now and in the 80's (when the play is set)?



 

Great Gatsby - Reading Journal Chapter 9

Nick describes himself as alone, even though he's met so many people in the book

He starts the book alone and ends it alone

He Imagines the voice of Gatsby (personification) even though he's just a dead body, showing that he hasn't accepted his death yet 

Through time, two years later and still remembers the summer in detail

Chapter is told through telephone

"his eyes leaking isolated and unpunctual tears" Nick has lost his ability to connect with people since Gatsby's death 

Nick's descriptions of things are duller in colour and vigor now showing how since the death the tone of the story has changed

The end of the novel but many references to the beginning

Multi voice narration through phone, Nick and Wolsheim

Father son link with the trembling hands; links different parts of the novel

Great Gatsby - Reading Journal Chapter 8

Chapter is made up of 8 phrases, each one very different tone

Represents Nick's personality changing and developing dependent on who is is in company with

Idea of a countdown (To Gatsby's Death)

Time jumps e.g to a conversation Nick had in chapter 6, fragmented instead of constant chronology

2nd phase jumps to Daisy and Gatsby's last night together 

Overall in the chapter tension is built and there is  growing sense of danger