SST - Assisi Flashcards
1
Q
“Dwarf”
A
- Word choice
- Has connotations of disablity and smallness, which suggests that the beggar’s physical appearance is striking and noticeable to the speaker, making the reader feel sympathetic for the beggar from the outset.
2
Q
“Tiny, twisted”
A
- Word choice
- Has connotations of distortion and warped, which suggests that the beggars legs are unable to support his body and that he might be sitting at an angle which is painful for him. This helps develop the reader’s sympathy for the beggar.
3
Q
“Outside”
A
- Word Choice
- Has connotations of being rejected and unwelcome, which suggests that the beggar has been exiled from the church and is also ignored by society.
4
Q
“Cleverness”
A
- Word choice
- Has connotations of being smart and intelligent, this suggests that MacCaig releases that the church is slyly taking advantage by making money from the fancy church, (when in reality they should be helping the poor). MacCaig’s tone here is sarcastic and mocking.
5
Q
“Slumped like a half-filled sack”
A
- Imagery, simile
- The beggar is being compared to a sack
- Just as a half-filled sack is misshapen and lumpy so the beggar is hunched over and seems incomplete. This suggests that his physical disabilities are significant and dehumanise him as he is being compared to an inanimate object.
6
Q
“The three tiers of churches”
A
- Imagery, metaphor
- The church is being compared to a cake
- Just as a wedding cake is usually built in tiers and is fancy and extravagant so the church is expensive and elaborate. This suggests that no expense has been spared when building this church, however this goes against the legacy of St Francis and allows MacCaig to highlight the hypocrisy of the church - they are more interested in making money than helping those in need.
7
Q
“A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly, fluttered after him”
A
- Imagery, Metaphor
- The tourists are being compared to chickens
- Just as chickens are reputed to lack intelligence and have a herd mentality so the tourists are just mindlessly following the priest around and not really paying attention. This suggests that the tourists are unable to see the irony or hypocrisy of the situation, as despite visiting St Francis’s church, they don’t learn about his values and they also ignore the beggar.
8
Q
“Whose eyes wept pus, whose back was higher than his head, whose lopsided mouth”
A
- Sentence structure: enjambment, rule of three, repetition
- The repetitive structure allows MacCaig to again remind the reader of the beggars poor physical condition and how he desperately needs help. MacCaig uses enjambment to highlight the word choice of “wept” which has connotations of being upset and in pain and the word choice of “pus” which has connotations of illness, emphasizing the fact that the beggar is really sick and is declining.
9
Q
“Brother of the poor, talker with birds, over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet”
A
- Sentence structure: rule of three, enjambment, word placement
- The rule of three helps to build a picture of St Francis that contrasts with the church built in his honour to allow MacCaig to introduce a sense of irony. St Francis would have hated the church as he would rather the money was used to help those in need. He would have helped the beggar outside. The word choice of “yet” at the end of the line reminds us the beggar’s poor physical condition means that he will likely die soon if he is not helped.
10
Q
“The suffering/ of His Son. I understood…”
A
- Sentence Structure: enjambment, caesura.
- The enjambment highlights the word choice “suffering” so MacCaig can draw attention to the fact there is suffering happening right in front of the priest yet he does nothing to help the beggar. The caesura allows for a definite pause before the speaker passes judgement on what he sees - the hypocrisy of the church and how they teach Christian values but don’t actually follow them.
