Aunt Julia annotations

Question 1

Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast

Answer 1

• loud/fast: full of energy, extroverted, repetition of very
• Gaelic an uncommon/unconventional language

Question 2

I could not answer her - I could not understand her

Answer 2

• Repetition shows speaker’s helplessness, he is the one at fault
• Literal (he can’t speak Gaelic) and metaphorical (he can’t understand her way of life)

Question 3

She wore men’s boots when she wore any. - I can see her strong foot, stained with peat,

Answer 3

• men’s boots: unconventional
• peat: is a part of the natural world around her, it has coloured her

Question 4

paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel while her right hand drew yarn marvellously out of the air.

Answer 4

• paddling: imagery of duck, connects to nature
• spinning wheel: dying art, connection to past traditions
• marvellously: like it’s magical, speaker in awe

Question 5

in the absolute darkness of a box bed

Answer 5

• absolute darkness: fear of the dark, sounds final (like death)
• box bed resembles a coffin

Question 6

listening to crickets being friendly.

Answer 6

• hearing: he can’t understand Aunt Julia but he can understand the crickets
• contrast between darkness and friendly, he still feels secure
• personification of crickets

Question 7

She was buckets and water flouncing into them

Answer 7

• All metaphors relate to nature or homely things
• ‘flouncing’ suggests movement and gracefulness
• Repetition of ‘she was’: positive affirmations, past tense suggests she’s no longer around

Question 8

She was brown eggs, black skirts and threepennybits in a teapot.

Answer 8

• Unusual selection suggests unusual character
• ‘threepennybits’ no longer exist, link to the past

Question 9

By the time I had learned a little, she lay silenced in the absolute black

Answer 9

• Irony, regret, he is too late and now can never understand her
• ‘silenced’ links to hearing
• ‘absolute black’ links to box bed and death

Question 10

But I hear her still, welcoming me

Answer 10

• ‘hear’: reference to hearing
• ‘welcoming’: friendliness is a part of her character

Question 11

with a seagull’s voice across a hundred yards of peatscrapes and lazybeds

Answer 11

• Seagull links to nature, is loud and incomprehensible
• Traditional way of growing crops, links to nature and old traditions

Question 12

and getting angry, getting angry with so many questions unanswered.

Answer 12

• Repetition shows her immense frustration, could also be one repetition each for her and the speaker
• ‘unanswered’ links back to ‘I could not answer her’