Ian Critchon-Smith

Question 1

Moment of epiphany: She is now empathetic to the thin woman’s sacrifices

Moment of epiphany

Answer 1

She saw what it must have been like to be a widow bringing up a son in a village not her own

The Telegram

Question 2

Characterization: Sarah is a bit naive/dim as she doesn’t understand that rank would make no difference

Conflict

Answer 2

‘Why is it different for the officers?’ … ‘Well, I just thought they’re better off’ said the fat woman in a confused tone,… ‘They’re still on the ship’

The Telegram

Question 3

Setting: Boring and miserable

Rural, Scottish Setting

Answer 3

This was a bare village with little colour

The Telegram

Question 4

Word Choice: The other villages think of her as an intruder, thirty years is a long time

Small-Mindedness

Answer 4

She was an incomer from another village and had only been in this one for thirty years or so. The fat woman had lived in the village all her days; she was a native

The Telegram

Question 5

Word Choice: The thin woman wants a better future for her son other villagers think this is snobbish

Individuality versus Conformity

Answer 5

Also the thin woman was ambitious

The Telegram

Question 6

Setting: The thin woman’s house is the last one on their street, this highlights how distanced she is from the other villagers

Isolated Characters

Answer 6

There were only another three houses before he would reach her (Sarah’s) own, and then the last one was the one where she was sitting

The Telegram

Question 7

Charcaterisation: Shows the difference in status between the fat and the thin woman

Conflict/Status

Answer 7

“Sub-lieutenant… ordinary seaman”

The Telegram

Question 8

Structure: the short, blunt sentence structure creates impact mirroring the impact the door will have in the village

Individuality versus Conformity

Answer 8

It certainly singled him out

The Red Door

Question 9

Parallel sentence structure reinforces the repetitive of his life. The list he often completes alone also emphasizes the solitary nature of his life

Isolated Characters

Answer 9

He lived by himself, prepared his own food, darned his own socks, washed his own clothes and cultivated his own small piece of ground

The Red Door

Question 10

Setting - Small mindedness of villagers

Small-Mindedness

Answer 10

It was true that the villagers when they woke up would see it and perhaps make fun of it, and would advise him to repaint it… Or they could hunt him out of the village

The Red Door

Question 11

Sentence Structure: Climax- explicitly expresses dislike. Colon - creates a dramatic pause

Desire to Break Free

Answer 11

On the other hand, he didn’t like wellingtons and a fisherman’s jersey. He hated them in fact: they had no elegance

The Red Door

Question 12

Characterization and sentence structure emphasizes his new found need to break out of the shekel his society has put him in

Moment of Epiphany

Answer 12

‘I have always sought to hide among other people… I have never,’ he thought with wonder, ‘been myself’

The Red Door

Question 13

Sentence a Structure: The short sentence emphasizes the conflict that Murdo has within himself

Conflict

Answer 13

Please let me live my own life

The Red Door

Question 14

Shows that the blue yellow and green doors blend in with the landscape

Rural, Scottish Setting

Answer 14

Green and black landscape

The Red Door

Question 15

Setting: Pathetic Fallacy - dreary weather reflects the character’s emotions

Rural,Scottish Setting

Answer 15

It had been a cold, dismal afternoon in the fields.

Mother and Son

Question 16

Word Choice: Suggests that any little things anything she does he reads it as though she’s doing it with malice

Conflict

Answer 16

He had become so sensitive that he usually read some devilish meaning into her smallest utterance

Mother and Son

Question 17

Simile: Emphasizing his isolation

Isolated Characters

Answer 17

As if he were on a boat on the limitless ocean

Mother and Son

Question 18

Word Choice: Repeated questions emphasizes his epiphany and and confusion - inner turmoil at the fact that he is just realizing that he doesn’t have to deal with his mom being horrible to him

Moment of Epiphany/Desire to Break Free

Answer 18

How can this thing make my life a hell for me?

Mother and Son

Question 19

Characteristion: Moment of near epiphany followed by strange through about a bicycle. Makes Jackson an unreliable narrator, as we can see he lacks understanding and his view of the world is highly prejudiced

Moment of (almost) Epiphany

Answer 19

For a Moment he did see himself as a black, cringing in that rotting office… But then a black would buy a bicycle and forget all about his humiliation. Blacks weren’t like us

Home

Question 20

Characterisation: Conflict between Jackson and his wife. She is harsh and unkind about his past- makes her just as unsympathetic to the reader as he is

Conflict

Answer 20

‘What would the Bruces say if they saw you running about in this dirty place like a schoolboy?’ She said coldly.

‘Whit dae ye mean?’

Home

Question 21

Setting: Clearly shown as an unpleasant place. “brown and “dirty blue” show how dirty the place is while “pitted with scars” shows that it can be quite violent

Rural, Scottish Setting

Answer 21

Walls were brown above and a dirty blue below, pitted with scars

Home

Question 22

Characterisation: Shows just how much the couple want to fit in the upper class ties into their attitude about eventually wanting to leave their former lives behind

Individuality versus Conformity

Answer 22

They stood there decisively as if they belonged there

Home

Question 23

Theme: 3rd person narrative - the wife’s thoughts. She looks down on her former neighbors

Small-Mindedness

Prejudice

Answer 23

Not that at that level you could distinguish Catholic from Protestant

Home

Question 24

Characterisation: Unpleasant wife wants to humiliate him

Isolated Characters

Answer 24

‘So you admit you were wrong,’ said his wife

Home