The City Planners (Margaret Atwood)

Question 1

Background of Poem [3]

Answer 1

• Cynical / Critical Tone
• Conveys Atwood’s critical ideas of planned perfection
  -Condemn the uniformity and suggests that nature will reclaim the land

Question 2

“Cruising these residential Sunday” [2]

Answer 2

‘Cruising’ –> shows connotations of the oblivious nature of these people to the decay of the city, the verb is relaxed and aimless

‘Sunday’ –> day of rest, so is supposed to be quiet, however there is ‘no shouting’ so is almost too quiet – unnerving tone

Question 3

“what offends us” [1]

Answer 3

‘offends’ –> hard verb, conveys Atwood’s strong ideas

Question 4

“housing in pedantic rows” [1]

Answer 4

‘pedantic’ –> the rows are unnervingly perfect

Question 5

“planted sanitary trees” [1]

Answer 5

Even the trees are planted deliberately, there is no chance for nature to thrive here, everything is controlled

Question 6

“assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the dent in our car door” [2]

Answer 6

‘assert’ –> commanding verb, suggests the control of the planners

‘like a rebuke’ –> the abundant perfection almost condemns the imperfections

Question 7

“no shouting here, or shatter of glass; nothing more abrupt than the rational whine” [4]

Answer 7

• The negatives convey the criticising tone of Atwood
• The achievement of the City Planners have ‘no shatter of glass’ is almost condemned as now the city is lifeless
• ‘rational whine’ –> even an irritating sound is rational, reinforced stripped of life, uninteresting
• listing suggests the degree of unnerving perfection

Question 8

“power mower cutting a Straight Swath in the diScouraged graSS” [2]

Answer 8

• the nature (link to trees) is ‘discouraged’ here, the City Planner want there to be a sickening order
• ‘straight swatch’ –> even the nature allowed to stay has to be pristine and orderly, the Sibilance conveys the sinister tone of the planners

Question 9

“but though the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria” [1]

Answer 9

personification of the driveways and the adverb ‘neatly’ conveys that the planners have established order – the subtle, effortless movement suggests the frustrating order

Question 9

“the roofs all display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky” [1]

Answer 9

personification of the roofs, again the use of ‘avoidance’ is not violent, but a reserved action giving a wide berth between order and natural appearances

Question 10

“the smell of split oil a faint sickness lingering in the garages, a splash of pain on brick surprising as a bruise, a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil; even the too- fixed stare of the wide windows” [3]

Answer 10

• ‘sickness lingering’ –> metaphor and emotive language
• ‘surprising as a bruise’ –> simile to convey how paint is violently at odds with the perfection ‘bruise’ is violent imagery
• ‘poised in a vicious coil’ –> verb ‘poised’ suggests the unpredictability, almost predatory, metaphor of coil likens it to a snake – evil, threat of domestic item

Question 11

“give momentary access to” [2]

Answer 11

the listing before the stanza claiming that these ‘certain things’ that defy the perfection give momentary access to the inevitable downfall (modal verb ‘will’) of the City and how nature will reclaim it

Atwood also voices how she finds comfort in what the City planners would disapproved of, conveying her critical tone, and how she undermines their efforts

Question 12

“future cracks in the plaster when the houses, capsized, will slide obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers that right now nobody notices” [4]

Answer 12

‘future’ –> prediction, her hope that the planners will fail and that nature will win

‘when’, ‘will’ –> modal verb, inevitability, shows extend of her hope

‘capsized’ –> fully submerged image of the houses conveys how right now nature is hopeless, but in the future the man made efforts will be hopeless and will be at the mercy of nature

‘obliquely’, ‘gradual as glaciers’ –> adverb and simile convey how this will happen cleverly over a long time period, so that the planners downfall will happen without their notice – mocks failure

Question 13

“that is where the City Planners with the insane faces of political conspirators are scatter over unsurveyed territories, concealed from each other, each in his own private blizzard;” [5]

Answer 13

• ‘City Planners’ –> proper noun creates them as an almost godlike entity (capitalism), in order to mock them and heighten their failures, as despite this nature is more powerful
• ‘political conspirators’ –> connotations of crazy, consumed in their quest for perfection, perhaps suggests their criminal action of trying to go against nature
• ‘scattered’ –> juxtaposes the order from the first few stanzas (‘pedantic rows’) to highlight the failure of the Planners
• ’ concealed from each other’ –> shows lack of unity despite having a common goal - condemning them
• ‘private blizzard’ –> connotation of ‘blizzard’ are destructive reflecting the destruction of nature as consequence of the planners

Question 14

“guessing directions, they sketch transitory lines rigid as wooden borders on a wall in the white vanishing air” [3]

Answer 14

• the verb ‘guessing’ suggests how the city is foreign to them, how they are un-welcomed, and do not belong – have no right to be there
• ‘sketch’, ‘tracing’ –> un-neat, careless nature of planning
• ‘rigid as wooden borders… in the white vanishing air’ –> despite the ‘rigid’ nature of their sketches, the planners’ attempts will prove fruitless as they are in the ‘white vanishing air’

Question 15

“in a bland madness of snows” [2]

Answer 15

• Metaphor links to the blizzard, emerging of nature metaphors in the description of the planners in final stanzas perhaps suggests the rightful infiltration of nature into planner’s artificial world
• ‘bland’ –> lifeless world of planners

Question 16

stanza length decreasing [1]

Answer 16

mirrors the deterioration of the man made city, how nature will reclaim land

Question 17

CONTEXT: What is Margaret Atwood well known for? [1]

Answer 17

The dystopian fiction novel ‘The handmaid’s tale’ as well as another novel calls ‘Oryx and Crake’ which explores the dystopia future after an environmental catastrophe

Question 18

What are the main ideas in this poem? [2]

Answer 18

That modern urbanisation is superficially ‘perfect’ but in a sinister way – prevents any sense of community/warmth

the speaker also seems wary of the way in which modern development is overtaking and controlling the natural world.

Question 19

What is the speaker doing in the poem? [1]

Answer 19

Driving through the residential streets of very ordinary suburbs. Should have been a relaxing Sunday drive – but there is something ‘wrong’ and sinister: ‘pedantic rows’ - it’s too perfect and clinical

Question 20

How does the speaker seem to feel in stanza one? [1]

Answer 20

Like an outsider/ alienated from the community she lives in.
The words ‘offends’ and ‘rebuke’ (meaning she’s being ‘scolding’ or ‘told off’) imply that the built environment doesn’t make her feel welcomed

Question 21

How is the town/city described? [2]

Answer 21

Rigid, inflexible, oppressive, lifeless
‘levelness of surface’, ‘pedantic rows’, ‘planted sanitary trees’, ‘the same slant’

Question 22

What is implied about the speaker and their family in stanza one? [2]

Answer 22

They don’t fit into the ‘perfect’ surroundings.

They are too messy and ‘normal’;
‘the dent in our car door’,
‘no shouting here’

Question 23

What is the relationship between the town and the natural environment in stanza one? [1]

What’s the speaker’s attitude towards this? [1]

Answer 23

The town attempts to impose order and control on the natural world.

The speaker is critical of this.

Question 24

What’s interesting about the use of the word “sanities” in stanza one? [2]

Answer 24

It’s ironic - this neighbourhood feels anything but ‘sane.’

It shows there’s a madness in being too rational/ too fixed/ too pedantic.

Question 25

What’s the effect of Atwood’s personification in:
the “power mower whines and is cutting a straight swathe…” [1]

Answer 25

The town sounds strangely evacuated and empty - soulless. There’s a lack of human inhabitants and the personification makes it sound like the town is running itself.

Question 26

What method is Atwood using when she includes the following words in the poem?
shouting, shatter, cutting, bruise, poised, vicious.

Why does she do this? [2]

Answer 26

Here Atwood uses a semantic field of violence.

This conveys that there is an ominous sense of violence/ threat hanging in the air.

Question 27

What might Atwood’s use of sibilance in the following line imply?
“Cruising these residential Sunday streets in dry August sunlight and sanitary trees assert levelness of surface” [1] (long answer)

Answer 27

The repeated ‘s’ sound is symbolically associated with snakes. Atwood may be making an allusion to the biblical story of the snake in Genesis tempting Adam and Eve’s fall from paradise – evil. This suggests the underlying ‘wrongness’ of the town. This is later reinforced by the line: “plastic hose poised in a vicious coil” which is again reminiscent of the snake in Genesis.

Question 28

What does the speaker think about the City Planners’ attempt to impose control on nature? [1]

Answer 28

The speaker is critical of this but also feels that it is madness and actually futile (impossible.)

Question 29

What do the following quotes reveal about the City Planners’ attempts to impose control and order?
Someone has spilt “oil” somewhere, there’s a random “splash of paint” on a wall, and a “hose” has been left lying around carelessly [1]

Answer 29

All three of these instances symbolise the futility of the City Planner’s efforts to erase spontaneity, chaos and disorder from human lives.

Question 30

What does the word “bruise” symbolise about the City Planners’ attempts to impose order and control? [1]

Answer 30

This hints at the City Planners’ willingness to use of force and violence to impose order if they need to.

Question 31

What happens in stanzas four to seven? [1]

Answer 31

Here we witness an apocalyptic tumbling of civilisation through an environmental catastrophe. The City Planners (the only human characters in the poem) come out to attempt to regain control.

Question 32

Why might Atwood use lots of enjambment in the final stanzas? [1]

Answer 32

To show the power of nature and the inevitability of environmental catastrophe. It also implies that no human can truly impose control on nature.

Question 33

In the final stanzas why might the City Planners be described as being “concealed from each other each in his own private blizzard?” [1]

Answer 33

This metaphor has connotations of humans not seeing clearly (caught in a blizzard). This links to climate change and the way in which we allow ourselves to remain ignorant of the consequences of climate change.

Question 34

Why does the poem end with oxymorons e.g.
“bland madness” or “panic of suburban order”? [1]

Answer 34

It implies that we are asleep to the horror around us - which is a contradictory state of being.

Question 35

Why does Atwood describe the houses as “capsized” boats? [1]

Answer 35

It reinforces the idea of the frailty of the man-made environment.