Half-past Two, U A Fanthorpe Flashcards

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1
Q

Meaning

A
  • Criticises behaviour of teachers who fail to communicate clearly with their students
  • Innocence of youth + insensitivity of adult world
  • Timelessness of youth + significant moments in childhood
  • Moral fable
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2
Q

Context

A
  • Fanthorpe = successful at academics
    • Experience of teaching
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3
Q

Imagery #1

A

“he couldn’t click its language”

  • Suggest boy views clocks with fresh new perspective
  • But “click”
    • More mechanical and fragmenting than tick
    • Boy imagines clock’s noice as language he hasn’t been taught
    • Language is clicking = seems to be inhuman and difficult
    • Shows inadequacy of boy’s teacher
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4
Q

Imagery #2

A

“wicked”

  • Boy’s experience of education is clouded by fear
    • Teacher misusing her power over boy
  • Ambiguous
    • Heard it from story or been called it
    • Adult responsibility VS child innocence
  • Language choices match vocabulary stereotypically heard in primary schools
    • Help locate our imaginations within that setting
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5
Q

Tone #1

A

Fable-like narrative: “Once upon a schooltime”

  • Encourage us to identify with boy’s experiences and see world through his eyes
  • Fairy tale = for children, expect good ending - ironic
  • Fake compound word
    • Makes language sound childlike
    • = story will take place in special kind of time
  • Challenges reader’s attitude to teachers & invites us to consider lasting effects of their carelessness
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6
Q

Tone #2

A
  • Anaphora = pace in poems
    • Obsessing over details = been long time
  • Smell, sound and touch: retaining dream-like quality as if he himself is daydreaming
  • Boy is truly entering world for first time
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7
Q

Structure #1

A

Free verse

  • Written in free indirect speech:
    • Used to express inner emotions of character who is not able tell you them directly
    • Bc child may be too young to communicate fluently with reader
    • Uses 3rd person narrator to explain what it feels to be abandoned and consequently outside time
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8
Q

Structure #2

A
  • Small three-lined ‘chunks’ of narrative + enjambment
    • Carries the element of fantasy
  • Resemble small boy’s tendency to compartmentalise his day into time modules
  • Mirrored in Fanthorpe’s presentation of his words, which lack spaces
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9
Q

Comparisons x3

A
  • “Prayer Before Birth”
  • “Piano”
  • “Hide and Seek”
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10
Q

“Prayer Before Birth” Comparison

A

Like Fanthorpe’s boy = unborn child recognises some evils of world

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11
Q

“Piano” Comparison

A

Comparisons with themes of memory and time

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12
Q

“Hide and Seek” Comparison

A

Being forgotten or abandoned as a child and what this teaches

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