Living Space

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

Life is simply temporary, there is no attachment or comfort , it is just utile

Question 2

Form

Answer 2

Free verse portrays the lack of regularity in the slums and the jumbled, patched-up, thrown-together nature of the slums
Lack of regularity in rhyme, rhythm, line and stanza length

Enjambement emphasises disorder.

Final two stanzas are one long sentence-???

Question 3

Caesura

Answer 3

Disrupts rhythm, symbolising the jagged housing

Question 4

Enjambement

Answer 4

Portrays how one house runs into the next . Too many words to fit in a small space .
Or politically, how one problem runs into the next

Question 5

Structure?

Answer 5

Someone has squeezed a living space - rhyme continues into next stanza, attempts to pull together

The stanza is squeezed between two others

First half is a physical description
Second half turns political

Question 6

Language

Answer 6

Semantic field of chaos and disorder

‘Thrust’ seems almost dangerous

Light vs imagery ; ‘white’ and ‘light’ symbolise hope but the ‘dark edge’ the hazardous, uncertain future

Question 7

The egg metaphor

Answer 7

New life
The next generation - the innocents

The houses are like eggs- they are fragile but they hold life

Hope is easily broken

Question 8

Straight lines

The whole structure leans dangerous

Answer 8

Symbolises through the irregular line length

The whole line leans out

Question 9

That is the problem.

Answer 9

Seems like an over-simplification with the matter-of-fact tone distancing the narrator, but it is rlly a statement about equality.

Question 10

Nothing is flat

Answer 10

Equality -> political statement

Nothing -> emphasise severity of the problem

Question 11

Beams balance

Answer 11

Beams torn about by enjambement and held together by alliteration -> symbol of the people uniting despite politics tearing them apart

Question 12

Nails clutch

Answer 12

Personification

The things that hold people things together are desperate - the unity is saving. But the participle seems visceral

Question 13

Miraculous

Answer 13

Sudden juxtaposition with positive imagery but it isn’t positive, they need a miracle to stay alive

Question 14

A living space

Answer 14

Home in chaos , structure

Distant imagery, it is not a home, no comfort

Question 15

‘Dared’

Answer 15

Emphasise the severity of the situation

Dharker is in awe of those brave enough to live there o

Question 16

Eggs in a wire basket

Answer 16

Fragility in the Hands of cruelty -> political message

Question 17

Fragile curves of white

Answer 17

Juxtaposition, sudden tender colour imagery

Question 17

Hung out over a dark edge

Answer 17

The unknown?

Inevitable death?

Question 19

A slanted universe

Answer 19

Political message -> the world is unfair

Question 20

Gathering the light

Answer 20

The egg prevails

Hope is poured into the next generation

Question 21

Bright, thin walls of faith

Answer 21

Religious allusion -> the faith holds the slum together

Thin- faith and life is fragile

The walls of the house hold optimism , as does the egg, but are easily broken

Faith, is typically positive and this compiles unlike ‘miraculous’ - shows a growth in positivity, hope and optimism

Question 22

CONTEXT

Answer 22

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan and raised in Glasgow

Now lives in Britain and India

From 1997 collection ‘Postcards from god’, about the slums in Mumbai