The City Planners

Question 1

Cruising these residential Sunday streets

Answer 1

Present continuous verb and the sibilance create a relaxed tone (due to the soft s sound) which lulls you into a false sense of security

Question 2

Dry august sunlight

Answer 2

Pathetic fallacy seems stifling and suffocating

sunis not usually described as dry - seems unatural

Question 3

What offended us is the sanities:

Answer 3

Use of us suggests they are a group which shows how the entire neighbourhood seems threatening, sanities suggests rational which shows how everything seems clean and unnatural

Question 4

The houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees

Answer 4

Pedantic - everything has to be done in a specific way
Planted - connotations of fake and unreal which makes the area seem uncanny
Sanitary - suggests that imperfections of nature had been destroyed and seems overly controlled

Question 5

Assert the levelness of surface like a rebuke to the dent in our car door

Answer 5

Simile - Rebuke - suggests a telling off which suggests that the whole neighbourhood’s atmosphere seems incredibly hostile

Question 6

No shouting here, or shatter of glass

Answer 6

Motif of silence makes it seem sinister and only negatives have been destroyed so it seems more controlled than no noise at all

Question 7

The rational whine of a power motor cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass

Answer 7

Rational - suggests the monotony of the noise which seems unnatural and sinister
Whine - associated with a pleading helpless cry
Discouraged grass - transferred epithet shows that its the speaker who is discouraged

Question 8

But though the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria

Answer 8

Neatly - linked with under estimating and shows the effortlessness of their actions
Hysteria - manic worry and panic
Metaphor - shows that the hysteria hasn’t fully been hidden and can still be seen but it is so close to show that it is purposeful and also shows the planner’s lack of care as it suggests a lack of effort - it hasn’t actually been removed

Question 9

The roof all display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky

Answer 9

Same slant - imagery of a defensive shield and how the neighbourhood comes together to block out intruders
Avoidance - shows how even the buildings reject nature
Display - verb has links to galleries which implies how this scene looks fake

Question 10

The smell of spilled oil a faint sickness lingering in the garages

Answer 10

Sibilance - creates a soft s sound which makes it seem cloying and difficult to get rid of and makes the atmosphere seem unpleasant
Sickness - metaphor suggests how this smell seem nauseating
Lingering - has connotation to evil as it seems shady and illusive showing how it seems unnerving

Question 11

A splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise

Answer 11

Simile - suggests injury and flaws showing the damage beneath the surface that they have failed to hide

Question 12

A plastic hose poised in a viscous coil

Answer 12

Imagery of a serpent shows how it seems like a paradise but there failure is shownlike in the genisis story, it could also show how the environment makes them see hostility in everything, are they becoming part of it?

Question 13

The too fixed stare of the wide windows

Answer 13

Wide windows - imagery suggests their inescapable nature as it shows how you cant escape their glare
Personification - shows how even the buildings seem judgemental but could be symbolic of their owners looking out, it is uncomfortable as it shows a lack of privacy

Question 14

The future cracks in the plaster

Answer 14

Enjambment from line above - shows the inevitability of this outcome and how supposed perfection cant last forever
Metaphor - shows the flaws in the buildings structure which projects the flaws onto those who live there

Question 15

When the houses capsized will slide obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers

Answer 15

Motif of oceans - suggests the immense power of nature and how the planners work will be destroyed and that of this there is no chance
Extended metaphor - suggests a sever image and highlights how this perfection isn’t as stable as it seemed before
Glaciers - suggests how they know that it is happening but cant do anything about it

Question 16

With the insane faces of political conspirators

Answer 16

Insane - suggests how we cant trust what they think and what they have done e as it implies unreliability
Conspirators- shows how they cant be trusted because they are people who plot and scheme

Question 17

Scattered over unsurveyed territories, concealed from each other, each in his own private blizzard

Answer 17

Semantic field of secrecy and isolation showing how they are disjointed and confused which means they don’t see there own flaws
Metaphor - blizzard - suggests that they are unable to see their actions and that instead they are blindly guessing

Question 18

Guessing directions they sketch

Answer 18

Both verbs imply haste and carelessness which implies why their designs seem imperfect- makes their plan seem like it is to churn out as many ideas untill they get the right one

Question 19

Transitory lines rigid as wooden borders on a wall in the white vanishing air

Answer 19

Transitory - implies how their ideas are impermanent and is backed because wood seems fine to begin with but then slowly degrades and rots which implies the lack of care they have for their creations
White vanishing air - abstract, suggests metaphorically that ideas vanish as soon as they are made

Question 20

Tracing the panic of suburb order in a bland madness of snow

Answer 20

Personification of the suburbs suggests that society is routed in hysteria and how they wont succeed in controlling it
Bland - suggests the dull predictability of their lives and how they have always been this careless
tracing- copying what is already there in a quick way but will lead to a reduced quality - they don’t care aboutr what they make