Significant Cigarettes

Question 1

Identity

Answer 1

Lev doesn’t want to leave home “he clutched an old red cotton handkerchief and a dented pack of Russian cigarettes.” (Represents his identity)
“Significant Cigarettes” - identity
​​”tucked into his boot was a small flask of vodka”- Russian vodka- part of his identity/home
“Find corners and shadows in which to sit and smoke, demonstrate that he didn’t need to belong, that his heart remained in his own country”- not ready to belong to England yet, holding onto his past
“Huddled against the window, staring out at the land he was leaving”, Link to his wife
“Huddled” trying to feel closer to “the land”, plosive “d”
Not wanting to let go - “clutched”
Ambiguous - “the land” is both landscape and homeland
find corners and shadows in which to sit and smoke, demonstrate that he didn’t
need to belong, that his heart remained in his own country.

Question 2

Lydia and Lev

Answer 2

Perspectives

“they would have to sit for fifty hours or more, side by side with their separate aches and dreams, like a married couple.” Forced physical proximity, but little understanding. Repetition of “each” (lines 19/20) highlights difference and separation between them

“they would probably separate with barely a word or a look, walk out into a rainy morning, each alone and beginning a new life.”
“Probably” - conditional adverb
“Rainy morning” - pathetic fallacy

“Lev’s hand holding the scrunched-up kerchief and Lydia’s hand rough with salt and smelling of egg”. Neither of them are perfect.

Comforted by familiarity vs wants change
“Lev could now see that darkness was falling outside the window and he thought how, in his village, darkness had always arrived in precisely the same way, from the same direction, above the same trees, whether early or late, whether in summer, winter or spring, for the whole of his life.”
Comforted by the familiarity and likes the fact that things are the same / wants things to stay the same.

Line 71 (Lydia) “I became very tired of the view from my window. Every day, summer and winter, I looked out at the school yard and the high fence and the apartment block beyond, and I began to imagine I would die seeing these things, and I didn’t want this. I expect you understand what I mean?’” - Claustrophobic / wants a new life (different from Lev). 
 She is moving for opportunities / a better life and is moving because he has no other choice: “Maya needs clothes, shoes, books, toys, everything.” Asyndeton, list of 5, seems overwhelming, builds up to hyperbolic “everything”.  A physical need vs a spiritual need. 

Work:
Line 25 “A world in which he would break his back working, if only that work could be found” (metaphor, plosives, conditional - the work may not be available) vs. Line 64 “I have some interviews in London for jobs as a translator” - higher skill level / prestige. Also “a few” interviews - multiple. Level of preparation.

b) Interactions - Look at their dialogue

“’Stork,’ said Lev. ‘Stork’s nest. Rain. I am lost. I wish for an interpreter. Bee-and-bee.’

/’Be-and-be?’ said Lydia. ‘No, no. You mean “to be, or not to be”.

/’No,’ said Lev. ‘Bee-and-bee. Family hotel, quite cheap.’

Dialogue highlights their differences

Line 87 “Stork” - link to Marina’s death. Uncommon vocabulary to know at this stage - shows his priorities (his family)
“Rain” - attitude to England
“Lost” - literally and metaphorically showing a sense of fear about what may happen
“Interpreter” - shows his lack of understanding
“B&B” - not a hotel / home. Rooms rented one night at a time - temporary and uncertain future.

“To be or not to be”- cultural = she will assimilate very easily / allusion to Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. High level of literacy / skill and also cultural understanding. Reading “The Power and the Glory” - Graham Greene again shows command of English as well as her positive associations

Question 3

Lev’s impressions of England.

Answer 3

Line 113 “…industrious immigrants, he imagined them sitting by a coal fire in a tall
house, talking and laughing, with rain falling outside the window and red buses going
past and a television flickering in a corner of the room.” - literal, pathetic fallacy,
symbolic (safe within a community of immigrants while everything that is associated
with England / is unfamiliar is locked outside). Comfort of cosy “coal fire” inside /
“rain” safely outside.

Disrespect of the “frumpy queen”
Lack of optimism: “grey” and “purple”
Invisages Elgar (a composer) as a banker - jealous of wealth and opportunity

“He envied Lydia, immersed in her English book.” - metaphor for her ability to fully immerse herself in English life and culture.

“Well, thought Lev, I’m going to their country now and I’m going to make them share it with me: their infernal luck. I’ve left Auror and that leaving of my home was hard and bitter, but my time is coming.”
“I’m” and “their” - sense of distance - sees England as his enemy
“Make them” - forceful tone
“Infernal luck” - oxymoron
“Hard and bitter” metaphor
“My time is coming’ - sense of certainty

Question 4

Journeys

Answer 4

Emotional journeys:
The journey he had with his wife
The journey he had trying to save his wife
His emotional journey throughout the text:
Beginning: “huddled” - vulnerable
End: “I’m going to their country now and I’m going to make them share it with me: their infernal luck. I’ve left Auror and that leaving of my home was hard and bitter, but my time is coming.” - very aggressive
“There would be times when the journey would seem to have no end”- symbolic not literal
Physical (Lev going from Russia to England, Lydia going from Yarbl to England)
Lev is moving due to desperation for a job, Lydia just wants more in life/bored of her old life (“I became very tired of the view from my window”)- trivial reason in comparison