The Darkness Out There - Penelope Lively Flashcards
‘She walked through flowers, the girl, ox-eye daisies.’
Imagery of life and flowers, linking the girl to ideas of innocence and life.
‘Bare brown legs brushing through the grass.’
Plosive alliteration: emphasising ‘bare’. The character is exposed, unprotected.
‘The dark reach of the spinney came right to the gate … Packer’s end.’
Long sentence followed by a short sentence - adds emphasis to Packer’s end, signalling a sort of danger, the first adding of tension/indication something is going to go wrong.
‘Blank-eyed helmeted heads, looking at you from among the branches.’
H alliteration, standing out amongst the sentence. This also creates imagery and places the reader within Sandra’s thoughts.
‘It was alright out here in the sunshine.’
Unwillingness to stray from what is safe, and known, a sort of innocence.
‘It was different things then, witches and wolves and tigers.’
The narrator describes childhood fears of the woods, make-believe creatures, with no evidence of existing. First mention of fear/darkness being internal.
‘After they were twelve or so the witches and wolves went away … it was the german plane.’
The first symbol of darkness. As the children age, their fears progress too. W alliteration.
‘Really sweet … the old poppets.’
Irony - the old woman described in the story is the opposite of that.
‘With a face below which chins collapsed one into another.’
Characterisation / metaphor for being ‘two-faced’.
‘A creamy smiling pool of a face.’
Metaphor: what is below the surface?
‘Her eyes investigated, quick as mice.’
Simile: tension, unsure, acting slightly strangely.
‘A no-mans-land of willow’s herb.’
Motif of danger/war, creating tension/imagery surrounding the forest - linking to soliders.
‘Like bees round the honeypot, they’ll be.’
Mrs Rutter creates tension by discussing Sandra’s future relationships, hinting to her sexuality. This creates an uncomfortable tone.
‘She touched the soft skin of her thigh … licked the inside of her teeth.’
Sensory description/imagery: reader placed in Sandra’s uncomfortable shoes following the conversation, hyper-aware of everything, the awkward feeling.
‘Mind your pretty skirt, pull it up a bit, there’s only me to see if you’re showing a bit of bum.’
Mrs Rutter creates tension by hinting to Sandra’s sexuality/bare body.
‘Killed in the war … he never came back.’
Context to Mrs Rutter/motif of war.
‘I’ve got a sympathy with young people.’
Irony: as later shown in the story, Mrs Rutter left a young German soldier to die during the war.
‘Just the personal things to rinse through.’
Mrs Rutter asks Sandra to clean her underwear - creating tension, adding to a motif of sexuality/awkwardness surrounding it.
‘You’re a lovely shape Sandra.’
Adding to motif of sexuality/uncomfortable feelings, as Mrs Rutter comments on Sandra’s body again.
‘She chuckled. ‘I saw it come down alright.’’
Tension building, signals to the reader a sense of mystery and foreshadowing as she chuckles (verb) at a tragic event.
‘Something about mutter, mutter… ‘
The trapped German soldier spends his last moments possibly thinking about his mother, a sad moment which is overlooked by Mrs Rutter as she chooses to ignore him, even after witnessing that.
‘He’d have been twentyish, that sort of age’
Irony linking to previous quote where Mrs Rutter states she has a sympathy for young people (repeated phrase).
‘The wood sat there in the afternoon sun … There were not, as the girl realised, wolves or witches or tigers.’
Turning point: Sandra has a moment of realisation regarding her fears.
‘He had grown; he had got older and larger.’
Metaphor: mentally grown/evolved, the world around her has changed, whilst not literally, her understanding of it has.
