Hotel Room 12th Floor

Question 1

This morning

Answer 1

Established setting and sense of time
Word Choice: suggests brightness, happiness and hopefullness

Question 2

watched

Answer 2

Word Choice: suggests he is a passive speaker

Question 3

helicopter skirting like a damaged insect

Answer 3

Simile: suggests something annoying and broken
Helicopter: symbol of wealth, MacCaig critices it and reduces it to something small and fragile

Question 4

jumbo size dentist’s drill

Answer 4

Metaphor: compares ESB to something that causes fear, pain, suffering and is pointless

Question 5

PanAm skyscraper

Answer 5

Heart of where NY connects to the rest of the world
Shows wealth and status

Question 6

But

Answer 6

Word Choice: signifies clear turning point
Mood becomes more solemn

Question 7

midnight has come in

Answer 7

Personification: implies midnight is a unwanted intruder

Question 8

from foreign places

Answer 8

Word Choice: has connotations of something unfamiliar and strange

Question 9

uncivilised darkness

Answer 9

Word Choice: connotations of chaos and conflict
Sometimes what can’t be seen is feared

Question 10

shot at by a million lit windows

Answer 10

Connotations of violence and lots of people
Metaphor: introduces idea of good vs evil, trying to fight the dark, good has strength

Question 11

ups and acrosses

Answer 11

Word Choice: shape of flats also religious image of good vs evil

Question 12

But midnight

Answer 12

Word Choice: second turning point reinforces idea of midnight as a person

Question 13

not

Answer 13

Enjambment: emphasises negativity and take over of darkness

Question 14

easily defeated

Answer 14

idea that the struggle is futile as evil will win

Question 15

lie in bed

Answer 15

can’t sleep

Question 16

radio and television set

Answer 16

Word Choice: symbolism of technology, using it to block out reality but nothing is working

Question 17

hear

Answer 17

his senses are being invaded

Question 18

wildest of warwhoops

Answer 18

Alliteration: mimics the sound of war cries suggests violence and unrest like in native american films
Superlative: suggests the extremity/severity of violence

Question 19

ululating

Answer 19

Onomatopoeia: howl, wails shows the noise made by sirens and victims of violence

Question 20

glittering canyons and gulches

Answer 20

canyons and gulches are modern buildings
buildings are now an image of wealth but the city is still violence showing society isn’t evolving

Question 21

police cars and ambulances racing

Answer 21

Word Choice: violence, danger, speed and chaos
Show the severe impact of the violence

Question 22

broken bones

Answer 22

Synecdoche: reduces people to individual body parts suggests that the lower rung of society don’t have a place and no one cares about the impact on them

Question 23

harsh screaming

Answer 23

pain, fear of those affected by the violence

Question 24

coldwater flats

Answer 24

poorer society, left behind from technology, the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer

Question 25

blood glazed

Answer 25

Image of doughnuts, it is smeared and permanently stuck with a shiny glaze

Question 26

sidewalks

Answer 26

transition from skyline to the ground

Question 27

Stanza 2

Answer 27

extended metaphor comparing New York to the wild west

Question 28

The frontier is never somewhere else

Answer 28

Enjambment: focuses on the negativity of never
Metaphor: evil is everywhere we go, the battle with darkness is everywhere, we cannot escape it is all around us

Question 29

stockades

Answer 29

man-made barrier specifically designed to protect but it cannot defeat the evil within us

Question 30

can keep the midnight out

Answer 30

final personification of midnight: midnight is a symbol of evil, MacCaig doesn’t think we can do anything to keep evil away