Sixty Five- essay writing

Essay responses are required of students studying Literature. This means that the examiner expects a piece of writing that demonstrates a smooth flow and is written with an excellent level of grammar and well- developed paragraphs. The question on the exam paper may be broken up in sections labeled a),b),c) to help guide students, but these letters should not be written in the response.

An essay should have an introduction, body(usually 3 or more paragraphs) and a conclusion.

Tips for students:

·         Read essay questions carefully, making sure you understand what is required.

·         Check that you have answered each part of the question.

·         Be guided by the mark allocation when considering how much time you send on each section.

·         Read over your response to correct any obvious errors.

Essay introduction

This will give a general overview as to what your response will be, the title of the text and the author should be mentioned here. Your last sentence in this paragraph will be your thesis statement. The thesis statement will state your response or argument of two or three main points that will be answered in the other paragraphs.

The body

If the question is structured for you(a,b,c), you can use one paragraph for each section. If not, you will have to plan how your points will be explained in the body paragraphs.

Don’t retell the story, just select parts that are important to answering the question. Ensure your opinion/response is not just the evidence from the text, but your own voice discussing the issue. Transitional phrases should be included, especially when moving to another paragraph.

Conclusion

Restate your thesis statement in another. Support this by saying what you have discovered while writing about the question. This should be a complete paragraph(about  sentences).

Sample Literature Item

‘History can come alive through Literature.’ Support this statement with evidence from the text ‘Sixty- Five’ showing:

a)      The setting of the novella ( 5 marks)

b)      The main characters discussed in the novella (8 marks)

c)      The two causes and one effect of the conflict of rebellion that is supported in the novel.(12 marks)

                                                                                                    Total 25 marks

           

Sample Response

1865 is an important year in Jamaica’s history. The then, freed slaves, were unhappy with the treatment they were receiving from the crown. The novel, ­Sixty- Five by V.S. Reid highlighted a rebellion that was caused by injustice in Jamaica. Paul Bogle is one of the main characters of the novel, that is known to many Jamaicans today as a national hero. Paul Bogle and George William Gordon led a rebellion Morant Bay, Jamaica. History comes alive in the novel through: setting, the development of the character Paul Bogle and the development of the causes and effects of the Morant Bay Rebellion.

Sixty –Five is set in the rural district of Stony Gut and the capital of St. Thomas, Morant Bay. At that time, Stony Gut was a dry place. A drought was on the land, and it cause the market to be bad. Also, during the summer of 1865, the people of Stony Gut were increasingly upset with the poor lands, taxes and the injustice of the laws, that  they sought conference with Governor Eyre.  However, Eyre refused to see them. This left them upset and tensions grew in Stony Gut as the drought lingered. After this disappointment, Paul Bogle become more steadfast in giving the poor people of Jamaica justice and equality.

 In chapter one of the novella, Japheth and Queenie are eager to hear Grandpa’s discussion on the latest plans of Paul Bogle. Grandpa Joe seemed to disagree with Bogle’s plan to march to Morant Bay.Paul Bogle was portrayed as a stubborn leader, as he did not listen to the advice given by Grandpa Joe and in the face of defeat still tried to match the Militia, who were more armed. He used his leadership position, as a deacon of the Baptist church, to influence the parishioners to join him in his march to the court house. He also led them, as they burnt and destroyed many places including the Morant Bay Court House. History records this as true, but seeing the destruction from Japheth’s point-of- view, made the scene frightening and real.

The causes of the rebellion made understandable because of how the events are portrayed. One cause of the rebellion was the long drought in the country. As a result, farmers were made making a living and the author showed how long their faces were on market day. The second cause of the rebellion is the injustices of the poor. The court case of the Stony Gut man in October 1865, is an example, as he was given a trial with a judge who usually sides with the planters and charged a fine that was too high for his deed. Consequently, when the rebellion broke out, Martial Law was placed on the area, so soldiers killed many civilians, who were not involved in the uprising.

History came alive because of the author’s clever way of characterization, setting and development of plot. The novella causes the reader to question, why Paul Bogle was named national hero, especially he seemed to have led foolishly. It causes the reader to wonder what would have been the outcome for Jamaicans, if Grandpa Joe’s advice was followed. The novella also showed that children were affected by the rebellion, like the characters Japheth and Queenie. In these ways, History came alive through Literature.

Main Points of Chapters 4-6

·         Deacon Bogle led men from Stony Gut and Torrington to Morant Bay.

·         Deacon Bogle intervened in the court case of the Stony Gut man by appealing the verdict and putting up money for bail.

·         The Stony Gut man ran into the crowd of men in front of the court house to escape punishment.

·         Grandpa Joe was still resistant about Bogle’s method of confrontation.

·         Japheth admired Bogle’s poise as a leader

·         A lot of military language is used

·         Japheth gives a brief history of the warrior spirit  in the mountain men

·         The dynamics of Grandpa and Japheth’s relationship played out- caring, rough at points, close/intimate, friends, adventurous.

·         Grandpa confronts Paul Bogle at his chapel- warns him of the coming trouble with the Militia men

·         Grandpa learns Charlie Murray, his son is in Morant Bay.

Themes to be examined: Love and Family Relationship,  Rebellion

 Some Figurative Language

Ø  Onomatopoeia- “ boom boom boom of the drums”pg 17

Ø   Personification-“ I am a man of lightning” pg 18

Ø  Imagery-“ They sang the road hymn in a way that matched the fighting tune, and you marched with them with your chin up and trumpets sounding in your head.” Pg 18 (visual imagery)

Ø  Simile- “Their sticks went in and out like snakes’ tongues, beating back the constables” pg 20

Just a reminder

Just to remind you guys about the format of the exam papers.

LITERATURE

The paper is divided into 4 sections.

• The first section is compulsory ( comprehension- unseen drama extract)
• From the remaining sections, choose 2 questions (from the six questions). No 2 questions should be done from one section. The questions in these 3 sections are all essay type questions. (prose- Sixty Five, poetry- World of Poetry, and Drama-Plays for Today)

LANGUAGE (2 papers)

Paper 1

• 60 multiple choice questions
• synonyms
• antonyms
• sentence completion
• spelling
• homonyms
• sentence structure
• comprehension (letter to the editor, narrative, poetry)

Paper 2

The paper is divided into 3 sections

• The first section is compulsory (comprehension- advertisement/ persuasion)
• Choose one question from the second section (2 stories, 1 descriptive piece)
• Choose one question from the third section (3 cause and effect questions)

ALL THE BEST !!!

FORGIVE MY GUILT

SUMMARY	METAPHOR
An adult is reminiscing about a traumatic childhood experience. The persona went hunting and shot two birds, plovers He suffers extreme guilt about this action in adulthood. The poem describes the event, the actions of the bird, how he reacts, and, by the last line, asks the birds to forgive his guilt.	Line 4: The nature of frost is that it covers everything in its path, therefore, when the flowers are compared to frost, it implies that there were a lot of flowers, enough to hide the boy from the birds.  Line 8: the sand is being compared to gold – colour. It is emphasizing how beautiful the setting was. Line 12: emphasizes the injuries that the birds sustained. The bones are compared to jagged ivory which are a direct    contrast to the smooth feathers that existed before the injury. Lines 20 – 21: the birds are compared to a flute, an instrument that plays beautiful music, emphasizing the sadness that is related to their death.
SIMILE	AIR/AIRY – THE IMPLICATION
Line 5: comparison of the air with flowers – both are blue and seem to cover the area Lines 6 – 7: emphasize the beauty and delicacy of the birds – beautiful dreams, beautiful birds. Line 7: highlights the speed of the birds, but maintains the beautiful visual imagery Line 12 – ‘cried like two sorrowful high flutes’ - expresses the extreme pain and agony the birds were in	These ‘airy’ – light and beautiful – birds can no longer fly and feel the pleasure of the ‘air’ – sky – rushing past them and through their feathers.
IMPORTANT WORDS/PHRASES	MOOD/ATMOSPHERE Nostalgia, sadness and guilt.
1.       ‘blue’ – the sky. Birds were crying out to other birds as they flew away. 2.       ‘in war or peace’ – the guilt the persona feels about killing the birds causes him to think about them all the time, even though their cries were heard for one day – literally- his guilt made it seem like ‘eternity’ -  ‘in war or peace’   3.       ‘drown’ – for the persona means death.  He continually hears the sorrowful sounds that the birds made as they were dying.
	TONE Sad, sorrowful.
	THEME Death, childhood experiences, nature, guilt, loss of innocence, desire/dreams

POEMS

SUMMARY
Forgive My Guilt ü  An adult is reminiscing about a traumatic childhood experience. ü  The persona went hunting and shot two birds, plovers. He suffers extreme guilt about this action in adulthood. ü  The poem describes the event, the actions of the bird, how he reacts ü  The poem ends with the persona asking the birds to forgive his guilt Mid Term Break ü  An adult is reminiscing about a traumatic childhood experience. ü  He remembers being a child in the college sick bay – he was not ill and had been taken there as something had happened. A neighbour then arrived and took the poet home, where it becomes clear that something terrible has happened.  ü  The poem describes, in detail, the reactions of all those around him, but only hints at his emotions: His father was crying and this was entirely out of character and the family friend Jim Evans was there.  Old men greet the child and shake his hand. ü  The poem ends with a change of scene and time, as the child enters the room of his dead brother the next morning and he attempts to make sense of what has happened.	Forgive My Guilt ü  Free verse – depicts the serious nature of the poem ü  Two long stanzas – one, the experience and two, the effect – emphasizing the extent of the guilt, the eternal pain of the persona that continue even to adulthood ü  The literary devices are vivid, clear and concise, leaving no doubt as to the shocking nature of the persona’s actions. ü  The contrast enhances the image of the birds’ suffering and the feeling of guilt experienced by the persona ü  Lineation speaks to the consistent mood, emotions of the persona Mid Term Break ü  Free verse – depicts the serious nature of the poem ü  Eight very short stanzas emphasize the suddenness of the child’s death, the shock of it, as well as the torturous  nature of not only the ‘wait’, but the time it took for the persona to accept his brother’s death ü  The literary devices stress the varying emotions at every stage of the experience – boredom, distress etc. ü  Contrast of the baby’s cooing emphasizes the reactions of everyone else. Also, there is a contrast between the eventful start – death, reactions, etc. – and the calm that leads into the end – the arrival of the corpse, the snowdrops soothing the bedside etc. ü  Assonance stresses the abruptness with which the boy’s life was taken ü  Lineation speaks to the varying emotions, and atmosphere etc. expressed in the persona’s description of his experience.

DEATH BE NOT PROUD

1.      Identify and analyze the elements and devices in the poem, ‘Death, be not proud’

2.      Discuss the issues portrayed in the poem

3.      Analyze the poem

Summary of Content

Sonnet Forms	Rhyme Scheme
Italian or Petrarchan	abbaabba cde cde abbaabba cc dd ee abbaabba cdcd ee  abbaabba cddc aa
Spenserian	abab bcbc cdcd ee
English or Shakespearean	abab cdcd efef gg

Sonnet:

·         Petrarchan – 14 lines 3 quatrains and a couplet

·         The first 8 lines tells what Death thinks he is the the volta/turn/switch occurs in line 9 – the attack on Death, maybe to cover the speaker’s fear, tells what Death really is.

·         Iambic pentameter – ten accented beats in each line – a Holy Sonnet (religious)

·         Rhythm – moderate tempo to match the supposed confidence and cockiness of the speaker. It speeds up in the volta to enhance the attack on Death. It moves up and down looping at times to mimic the feelings of the speaker etc.

·         Death used as a metaphor but is personified – a bad boy, bully etc

·         The rhyme scheme and meter emphasize the mood and tone

The Speaker

Who is the speaker, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?

The speaker of this poem finds himself in something like a David and Goliath situation. You might remember David from the Bible: he’s the skinny kid from Israel who takes down the biggest, meanest giant in the land with only a slingshot. The speaker doesn’t even have a slingshot – he only has his wit, or the ability to talk circles around his enemies. He’s got all the verbal tools: apostrophe, rhetorical questions, puns – the whole nine yards.

The speaker of the poem believes himself to be a good Christian, so he's confident he’ll eventually make it to Heaven. Even so, Death is nothing to sneeze at. The speaker sounds confident, even cocky, when he tells Death that he isn’t so "mighty and dreadful." But, despite this appearance, the speaker must be quaking in his boots. He has to summon all of his courage just to keep it together. If he shows any weakness, he knows that Death will pounce all over him.

By the time the poem takes a "turn" in line 9 (as any good Petrarchan sonnet will do), the speaker really lays into Death, calling him a slave and making fun of his friends. We imagine he’s right up in Death’s grill at this point, poking his finger in his chest. Fortunately, he ends the poem on a killer line about how Death will die. This probably leaves Death scratching his bony little head. And, as is always best to do when you tell off someone bigger than you, we imagine that the speaker doesn’t stick around for when Death finally comes to again. He gets the heck out of there.

Symbol Analysis

Death is a total poser in this poem, like a schoolyard bully who turns out not to be so tough, after all. The speaker even makes death out to be a good thing, because it leads to the new life of Christian eternity. Plus, everyone bosses Death around, from kings to suicidal people. Finally, a lot of the poem’s wit comes from combining literal and symbolic uses of the words "death" and die."

• Lines 1-2: This has got to be one of the most famous examples of personification and apostrophe in all of poetry. The speaker treats death like a person who is considered "mighty" and "dreadful," which is personification. And, he addresses this person-like Death directly, even though Death obviously can’t respond, which is apostrophe.
• Lines 3-4: Donne uses apostrophe again to address, "poor Death," which is an embarrassing and condescending way to talk to someone who considers himself a tough-guy.
• Lines 5-6: In this metaphor, he calls rest and sleep "pictures" of Death. They don’t have photographs in Donne’s age, so "pictures" just refers to imitations, like a drawing or a painting.
• Lines 7-8: Continuing the personification of Death, the speaker says that good people allow death to lead them out of their earthly lives. The bones of the "best men" are a synecdoche, because they actually stand for the whole physical body. Line 8, then, draws a standard religious contrast between body and soul.
• Line 12: We often talk about people who "swell" with pride, and that’s what’s going on here, when the speaker asks, "Why swell’st thou then?" This is a rhetorical question, designed to make Death realize that he has no reason to be proud.
• Line 14: He uses the concept of death three ways in this tricky line. First, there is real, physical death (the second word of the line). Then, there is the personified idea of Death. Finally, there is death as a metaphor for simple non-existence – something that ceases to be there – which the last word "die" references.

Rest and Sleep

Donne didn’t invent the comparison between death and sleep, but he uses it here to great effect. But, you have to know a tiny bit of Christian theology to fully understand the idea. It is thought that, when faithful Christians die, they are only "dead" until the Day of Judgment comes and Christ returns to Earth. They compare this length of time to a period of "sleep." At this point, time ends, eternity begins, and all the faithful Christians who died will "wake up" to be led into Heaven. At this point, all their earthly troubles are over for good, and they will be at "rest" with God.

• Line 5: This metaphor compares "rest" and "sleep" to "pictures," like a painting or drawing. The point is that the rest and sleep are pale imitations, and Death is the real thing. On the other hand, Death is only a much stronger version of sleep, and not something scary and different.
• Line 8: This line describes what the experience of death means to the "best men" of line 7. One of its meanings is eternal rest for their weary bodies, or "bones."
• Line 11: The comparison between Death and sleep becomes an extended metaphor at this point. The speaker says that, if he only wants a really good sleep, he doesn’t even need Death; he can use "poppies" (opium, a kind of drug) or "charms" (magic or potions).
• Line 13: The extended metaphor continues. He calls the time between the speaker’s death and the Day of Judgment a "short sleep." In human terms, this may not seem that short (we can assume the speaker is "asleep" for hundreds of years already), but, compared to Eternity, pretty much anything is short. When the speaker "wakes up," he will find himself in Heaven.

Death's Friends and Masters

Death hangs out with a bad crowd, like the kids who hang out behind the bleachers and try to talk you into vandalizing things on Halloween. Unfortunately, they aren’t cool at all. They’re big losers, in fact, and Death knows it – which is why it’s such an insult when the speaker points out Death’s connection to poison, war, and sickness. And, that’s not all. Death – this big strong guy – isn’t even his own master! All these other people tell him what to do. It’s like when you learn that the bully who torments you at school actually has his own bullies in the next grade up. It may not prevent your daily beatings, but it makes you feel a whole lot better about it.

• Line 9: This metaphor calls Death a "slave" to "fate, chance, kings, and desperate men." Implicitly, all these things are personified as Death’s master.
• Line 10: Although it’s not as obvious as in other parts of the poem, we think "poison, war, and sickness" are personified as thugs, or worthless individuals.

Birth

There’s only one example, and it’s a play on words, but we wanted to give Birth a little love, too, because it’s nothing but Death, Death, Death for most of the poem.

• Line 8: It’s a pun! Sweet! To "deliver" someone can mean to set them free, as in the Lord’s Prayer: "Deliver us from evil...." But, the speaker also wants to be "delivered" into the afterlife, like a baby is "delivered" into the world during birth. The comparison of death to rebirth is such a common metaphor that we rarely even think of it as a being a metaphor.

BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OzA7AifBTpQ#!

1.      Identify and analyze the elements and devices in the poem, ‘Ballad of Birmingham’

2.      Discuss the issues portrayed in the poem

3.      Analyze the poem

Summary of Content

BALLAD

A narrative song: a song or poem, especially a traditional one or one in a traditional style, telling a story in a number of short regular stanzas, often with a refrain.

LITERAL MEANING

The poem is about a mother who loses her child. The child made a request to attend a freedom march through the streets of Birmingham, but the mother said no. She feared the many violent things that could befall her child in this setting. She, however, agreed that the child could attend church. She was content with the knowledge that her child was safely at church, until an explosion saw her racing through the streets of Birmingham to find her child. She did not find her, but instead, found a foot of shoe in the rubble.

FIGURATIVE MEANING

Parents cannot always protect their children no matter how hard they try. Life is an irony that one must always be aware of. It is unpredictable. The place/things that one thinks are safe to be/do may just be those that put one’s life at risk, presents the most danger and/or produce fatal results.

LITERARY DEVICES

1. REPETITION

·         The purpose of the child's repetition of where she wants to go and why, is to contextualize the poem. The reader is made aware that the poem is set in Birmingham during the civil rights movement. The repetition is for emphasis of this fact. 

• The mother’s repetition of ‘no’, highlights her fear of the harmful things that could happen to her child. Note that after each ‘no’, she lists possible harmful things that could occur if the child goes on the freedom march.

2. METAPHOR

·         The comparison of the darkness of the child's hair to night is purely to emphasize how black the persona's daughter’s hair is. It could also be a foreshadowing of what is to come.

• The comparison of her sweet smell, after her bath, emphasizes the care that went into preparing the child for church. The phrase also places some emphasis on the child’s innocence, fragility and vulnerability. The child was treasured, well taken care of. The mother did not send her child out into the world with an uncaring touch.

3. IRONY (situational)

The overwhelming irony that exists in this poem is the fact that the mother was so adamant about NOT sending her child to the freedom march, because she considered it to be so dangerous. Yet it is while in church, the place that she thought was sacred and safe, that the child got killed.

4. IMPORTANT WORDS / PHRASES

·         wet and wild: 
This tells the readers that the mother was crying when she heard the explosion, while the term wild points to the panic that overtakes the mother. Her love for her child is emphasized in these two words. 

·         raced:
The mother ran very quickly down the streets of Birmingham. This emphasizes her panic, and in turn, the great love that she felt for her child.

·         clawed:
This word is striking in its intensity. It means that she did not simply remove the rubble, but did so with a desperation that highlights the love that she has for her child.

·         … baby, where are you:

This last line emphasizes the loss of the child. When it is combined with the quotations above, the impact of the frantic panic that the mother feels at the point of the explosion erupts and settles in the expression of total loss and a feeling of helplessness.

5.THEME

·         Death/Fear of Death/Inevitability of Death are the overwhelming themes in this poem. A mother's over protectiveness does not, and seemingly cannot, prevent this tragic event from occurring.  

·         Dreams – of seeing child (ren) grow up, Plans – singing in the church choir, living the life the Lord planned for them to live as Christians, Religion – the belief/faith in God and His Divinity are others

IMPACT OF THE ELEMENTS – samples

Rhythm:

·         The pace in the first half of the poem reflects the excitement of the child in her request to attend the march. The urgency of the mother is also reflected here in her plea for the child’s understanding as she explains her concerns.

·         The second half is faster, more frantic reflecting the panic the mother felt as she races to search for, find and protect her child

Mood:

·         The mood is light, happy and celebratory – the child’s request to march with her friends – and gets serious as the mother denies the child’s request and lists the dangers. It continues going back and forth in the first few stanzas

·         The mood then becomes fearful at the point of the explosion – panic, anxiety, fear becomes constant