From The Journal of A Disappointed Man

Question 1

What are the themes?

Answer 1

Masculinity, changing landscape of gender

Question 2

What is suggested through the title?

Answer 2

It is an observation from the more feminine man - ‘journal’ suggests a learnerd man

Question 3

‘discovered’

Answer 3

Suggests narrator has found/uncovered something new

Question 4

‘new pile/into the pier’

Answer 4

Enjambment - usefulness in society is coming to an end, masculinity as long and arduous. Blue collar is no long useful as there is no progression for old traditional toxically masculine identities.

Question 5

‘paraphernalia’

Answer 5

lacks meaning to him

Question 6

‘chains, pulleys, cranes, ropes and, as I said, a wooden pile, a massive affair’

Answer 6

syndetic listing- laborious, hand powered tools - stereotypes of toxic masculinity. vague language, reduces speakers knowledge, doesn’t understand

Question 7

‘massive style’

Answer 7

narrator adds emphasis to the physicality of the men

Question 8

‘very powerful men, very ruminative and silent men ignoring me’

Answer 8

strips them of identity beyond stereotypical ideas of physicality - separates himself from hyper masculinity/ feels like an outsider- divided within complex gender landscape of masculinity. Latinate presents narrator as educated

Question 9

‘all monosyllables’ and ‘they’ ‘them’

Answer 9

juxtaposes narrators polysyllabic language - speaker is atypical in the eyes of hyper masculinity / plural pronouns emphatic of divide

Question 10

‘I could tell’ ‘I cannot say what’

Answer 10

juxtaposition projecting his inner conflict/ distorted understanding

Question 11

‘great difficulty.’

Answer 11

dilemma - the work is almost an extended metaphor for the changing landscape of masculinity / end stop shows he cannot resolve the challenges within masculinity

Question 12

’ I thought’ ‘indifferent’

Answer 12

juxtaposition - builders are indifferent whereas narrator cares about resolving the issues / he is disappointed that other men are not attempting to solve it - gone in a search for answers

Question 13

‘man’

Answer 13

repetition of narrators deep desire to resolves the issue of what it is to be a man - preoccupied with masculinity

Question 14

‘crack of Doom’

Answer 14

quote from Macbeth - further emphatic of the stark divide between him and men - the intertextual reference shows he is educated/expressive vs silent

Question 15

‘finally ceased.’

Answer 15

narrator is perhaps slowly giving up - stereotypical masculinity causes to be useful in society - gradual change/ erosion of stereotypes / sudden decision to stop attempting to solve dilemma

Question 16

‘one massive man’

Answer 16

alliteration is emphatic of stereotyped physique

Question 17

‘no one spoke; no one said what they saw’ ‘mystic’(a philosophical thinker)

Answer 17

narrator suggesting that the blue collar worker is almost fantastical p the man has the answers to the dilemmas of masculinity / repetition of negators

Question 18

‘spit’

Answer 18

monosyllabic contrasts with mystic - almost fantastical portrayal is reduced down to something more primitive

Question 19

‘descent into the same depths’

Answer 19

plosive alliteration - harsh/blunt ens to the search to solve the masculine dilemmas

Question 20

‘the tension’

Answer 20

speaker feels somewhat frustrated at his inability to solve the dilemma - men who seemingly don’t care

Question 21

‘heavy kind of majesty’

Answer 21

shift in poetic tone from ‘monster’ - more appreciative/ in awe - regal imagery

Question 22

‘suddenly closed’

Answer 22

end stop emphatic of how he has potentially given up - less room for blue collar workers

Question 23

‘the pile is still in mid air’

Answer 23

left unsolved / emphatic of divide - cyclical, in the same space as beginning