In my last post I feel I gave off the wrong impression. I was happy with the way I completed the Literature exam, it was a good set of questions in my opinion.
Write about the ways McEwan tells the story in Chapter 22
So, not my favourite chapter, but for anyone who's read the book you'll know how exciting it is. Or is supposed to be. It's quite anti-climatic as climaxes go. Sure, he has the handgun, sure he uses it, sure the stalker gets what was coming to him, sure, sure, sure... But it wasn't exactly riveting action, was it?
That's the problem with these "literary genre" types. They may draw upon other genres for their narrative techniques, and believe me they do, but they aren't exactly the most exciting books out there. Nonetheless, that is not what McEwan set out to do with Enduring Love, and it is a good novel.
"It's ridiculous to argue that McEwan made Parry anything other than terrifying" To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Now, that was the gist of the question, at least. The most important part was the "...anything other than terrifying...", and in my opinion couldn't be further from the truth of the matter. I argued so in my paper, don't worry. I pity Jed, but there was no point in the novel where I thought, "Oh, damn, he's terrifying."
Write about the significance of the use of descriptive language by three of the writers you have studied.
This was the all-important 42-mark B question, or something to that degree. Again, important words being: the use of descriptive language, and significance. So, here I talked about good old La Belle Dame sans Merci by Keats, Goblin Market by Rossetti and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, as I had to mention all three of the other writers I had studied with my fellow classmates.
La Belle Dame was the easiest one to speak about. Significance of language. Couldn't have asked for a nicer topic, in my opinion. I do English Language as well as Literature, so I have a good grounding in it. I discussed the importance of colour in the poem, there's a lot to mention in relation; and something about nature too, I think.
Goblin Market came next, and though I didn't like this poem as much as the other I still had a fair amount of material to work with; I spoke of the links between the animal-faced merchant men and their violent nature later in the narrative, linking this to the contextual factors of Rossetti's work with whores in the hospices. There's a remarkable amount of double entendre in this poem, with references to squeezing fruits on the girl's mouth to try and make her eat, then her sister licks the fruit juice off of her face and body.
Lastly, Great Gatsby, an American novel from the Roaring Twenties -- full of the American Dream and delusional characters, brimming with imagery, motifs, themes and significant language. I despise Nick Carraway, the boring bastard was narrator for the whole novel. I didn't leave myself quite as much time for this addition to the question as I perhaps should have, but no matter... I did write something.
Good luck to everyone else who sat the same exam, I'm sure you all did well.
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