Half-past Two, U A Fanthorpe Flashcards
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
2
Q
Context
A
- Fanthorpe = successful at academics
- Experience of teaching
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
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
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
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
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
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
9
Q
Comparisons x3
A
- “Prayer Before Birth”
- “Piano”
- “Hide and Seek”
10
Q
“Prayer Before Birth” Comparison
A
Like Fanthorpe’s boy = unborn child recognises some evils of world
11
Q
“Piano” Comparison
A
Comparisons with themes of memory and time
12
Q
“Hide and Seek” Comparison
A
Being forgotten or abandoned as a child and what this teaches
