Effects Flashcards
Who is the speaker in Effects?
Past tense, first person perspective of a son whose mother has died
What are the key events of Effects?
Son remembers mother in domestic role
e.g. cooking (generational divide)
Remembers details of the mother’s watch and her watching tv
Remembers her making narrow-minded, xenophobic remarks and how she drank was depressed after her husband died
Towards the end, remembers her in the psychiatric ward (repeated references to hands, tv and “thick rubber band” instead of a watch to show how she has changed)
Final memory is the mother telling him not to leave but he does and finally the “effects” represent her death
Quote for repetition of connectives in Effects
“and”
Quote(s) for use of parentheses in Effects
“(scent-sprays…)”
- encapsulation suggests the folding importance of sentimental objects
“and her watch?-“
Quote for reported speech in inverted commas and italics in Effects
“to whatever ‘funny foreign stuff’”
Quote for plosive sounds in Effects
“knuckles reddened, rough from scrubbing”
- harsh sounds represent manual work from the consonants
- literal labour of his mother’s love is emphasised
- lack of conjunctions presents endlessness and hard-working
What is the structure of Effects?
Continuous blank verse
Rhyming couplet at the end
- compounds sense of sorrow within the poem
- emphasises sense of self-hatred within
Themes in Effects
Loss
Memory
Absence
Regret
Mothers, Children, and Family Dynamics
