Ransom

Question 1

Theme: Leadership – public v private identity
Explanation: Priam describing himself as a child.

Answer 1

“just one of a rabble of slave children” (Priam as a child, Podarces)

Question 2

Theme: Leadership – public v private
Explanation: Achilles has a connection to his mother when he is not a warrior.

Answer 2

“The man is a fighter, but when he is not fighting, earth is his element.” (Achilles)

Question 3

Theme: Leadership – public v private
Explanation: Priam is trying something new.

Answer 3

“the hero of the deed that till now was never attempted.” (Priam)

Question 4

Theme: Leadership – public v private
Explanation: Achilles is not himself anymore.

Answer 4

“His runner spirit deserted him” (Achilles)

Question 5

Theme: Leadership – public v private
Explanation: Priam is aware of both the good and bad aspects of being a King.

Answer 5

“the splendour and limitations of what it is to be a king.’ (Priam)

Question 6

Theme: Leadership – public v private
Explanation: Priam is a mere human too.

Answer 6

‘It is true that the gods made me a king, but they also made me a man, and mortal.’’

Question 7

Theme: Leadership – public v private
Explanation: Priam is seen as a simply this…

Answer 7

“A ceremonial figurehead that might just as well be of stone or wood.’

Question 8

Theme: Grief (mortality)
Explanation: We lose dear things.

Answer 8

“what we must lose is truly sweet to us”- Priam

Question 9

Theme: Grief (mortality)
Explanation: Achilles seeks revenge and resorts to rage.

Answer 9

“He was waiting for the rage to fill him that would be equal at last to the outrage he was committing.” (Achilles)

Question 10

Theme: Grief (mortality)
Explanation: Killing Hector to get rid of his grief.

Answer 10

“That would assuage his grief” (Achilles, Priam too)

Question 11

Theme: Grief (mortality)
Explanation: Achilles can’t think with clarity.

Answer 11

“Half blind with rage” (Achilles)

Question 12

Theme: Grief (mortality)
Explanation: There is more to death.

Answer 12

‘But the truth is, we don’t just lie down and die, do we, sir? We go on. For all our losses.’

Question 13

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: Priam must view himself as sacred.

Answer 13

“He is obliged, in his role as king, to think of the king’s sacred body” (Priam)

Question 14

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: Priam recognises they must take responsibility.

Answer 14

“The opportunity to act for ourselves.” (Priam)

Question 15

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: Somax relates everyone to one level because they are human.

Answer 15

“such bits of experience as are common to all, whether the gods in their wisdom have set us high or low.” (Somax, everyone is human)

Question 16

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: Ransom is…

Answer 16

“Royal custom” (Ransom)

Question 17

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: Priam dresses very humbly.

Answer 17

‘He himself is dressed in a plain white robe without ornament.” (Priam, as human, compares to Queen)

Question 18

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: Priam was selfish.

Answer 18

“His attention was fixed always on what was central. Himself.”

Question 19

Theme: Ceremonial world v natural world (humanity)
Explanation: The fish have no interest in Priam.

Answer 19

“They had already decided that he was an object of no interest.” (Priam and fish)

Question 20

Theme: Sharing experiences and storytelling
Explanation: Somax and Priam both know what it is like to lose a son.

Answer 20

“…that he knew what it was to lose a son, really did mean the same for him as it did for the driver”. (Somax/Priam)

Question 21

Theme: Sharing experiences and storytelling
Explanation: Achilles had been brought up in a masculine way.

Answer 21

“He had entered the rough world of men, where a man’s acts follow him wherever he goes in the form of story.” (Achilles)

Question 22

Theme: Sharing experiences and storytelling
Explanation: Somax is a storyteller.

Answer 22

“This old fellow, like most storytellers, is a stealer of other men’s tales” (Somax – helps to construct, too)

Question 23

Theme: Sharing experiences and storytelling
Explanation:

Answer 23

“It was as if you had found yourself peering through the crack in a door”(Somax and Priam)
“his heart softened by fellow-feeling” (Somax and Priam)

Question 24

Theme: Sharing experiences and storytelling
Explanation: Description of the innocence of Priam when eating griddlecakes.

Answer 24

‘Like an obedient toddler… allowed himself to be persuaded and took one of the little cakes in his fingers” (Priam, Somax – symbol or normalcy/griddlecakes)

Question 25

Theme: Sharing experiences and storytelling
Explanation: Somax again relates everyone.

Answer 25

“We’re tied that way, all of us. Tied here,” (Somax to Priam)

Question 26

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: Iris speaks to Priam.

Answer 26

“the way things are. Not the way things must be, but the way they have turned out.” (Iris)

Question 27

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: Priam dreams for change.

Answer 27

“Something impossible. Something new”. (Priam)

Question 28

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: The triumph was endosed by the Gods and endorsed.

Answer 28

“It is only a provisional triumph, of course”

Question 29

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: Priam has become a new version.

Answer 29

“…even in these last days of his life, as a man remade.” (Priam)

Question 30

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: Achilles doesn’t always want to be the hero.

Answer 30

“the chance to break free of the obligation of being always the hero” (Achilles and Priam, restored to human self)

Question 31

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: Priam has changed.

Answer 31

“Look, he wants to shout, I am still here, but the I is different.” (Priam, change)

Question 32

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation:

Answer 32

“What lies ahead is the interim of the truce, a time for ordinary life to be resumed” (Priam)

Question 33

Theme: Change/legacy
Explanation: Achilles and Hector are in peace.

Answer 33

“there can be no conflict
between them. They are in perfect amity. Their part in the long war is at
an end.”

Question 34

Theme: Paternal/maternal roles
Explanation: Priam appeals to Achilles as a father.

Answer 34

“I have come to you, Achilles, just as you see me, just as I am, to ask you, man to man, as a father, for the body of my son.”

Question 35

Theme: Paternal/maternal roles
Explanation:

Answer 35

‘To be son to the great Achilles is a burden.’ (Neoptolemus)

Question 36

Theme: Paternal/maternal roles
Explanation: Neoptolemus will avenge his father’s death (a shame)

Answer 36

“the raw shame of it will be with him now till his last breath” (Neoptolemus)

Question 37

Theme: Paternal/maternal roles
Explanation: Hecuba laments Astyanax.

Answer 37

“It is my flesh that is being tumbled on the stones out there.” (Hecuba)

Question 38

Motif: Water

Answer 38

symbolizes change and the fluidity of life, cleansing – metaphorical cleansing of former lives (rebirth after death of former self), Achilles as demi-god symbolises water and his mother’s element, represent separation of people/places

Question 39

Motif: Clothing

Answer 39

represents two different worlds – the ceremonial full of material wealth, and the everyday and humble without adornment. Priam is happiest in plain white robe.

Question 40

Motif: Journeys

Answer 40

symbolize change and storytelling and connection with others.

Question 41

Motif: Beauty

Answer 41

carries Malouf’s message that the beautiful, ordinary things in life are the most valuable and enduring…

Question 42

Motif: Ransom

Answer 42

fee paid in exchange for something else (life, name…Priam and Podarces, body back from enemy), death is the fee paid for life.

Question 43

Motif: Tears

Answer 43

subvert the male stereotype and signify grief and transformation into humanness.

Question 44

Motif: Natural World

Answer 44

represents catalysts for change and transformation, river provides metaphorical death of former self and acquisition of humanness, at the end of the text, when Priam’s presence on the way back to Troy does not intrude on the daily rituals of the peoples’ survival – breaks down social structures, just like The Queen

Question 45

Motif: Light and dark

Answer 45

Change and transformation of both natural landscape but characters too. “empty shining” 78
“stripped of all glittering distractions” 79
“his spirts … cleared and lightened” 117
“secluded corner where the torchlight does not reach” 167
“air is thick … pour out smoke and acrid fumes” 167
“eleven days of peace Priam felt shining around them” 198
“the hills towards Troy are just beginning to develop shadows on their sides” 207
“his heels glow” 211

Question 46

Motif: Air

Answer 46

“Only the humming of the air, and its scorching touch, as it eddied round past him” 27
“air still heated and thick” 111
“smoky darkness” 171
“air is thick … pour out smoke and acrid fumes” 167
“the air out here is so fresh and clear after the smokiness of the hut” 188
“clear night sky. Breathes in its freshness” 189
“the air, with its cool edge, a reminder of how present and warm he is in his envelope of flesh” 194
“cleared his heart of the smoky poison that clogged and thickened its every motion” 190
“fog, which crawls so close to the ground” 205
“the air is fresh and clear” 208
“air is filled with the stench of shit” 21

Question 47

Symbol: Griddlecakes

Answer 47

storytelling and power of words, and also symbolises humility and the ordinary

Question 48

Symbol: Jove’s Eagle

Answer 48

symbol from gods that they endorse the journey and will protect Priam, whereas Somax sees it a chickenhawk – an ordinary bird out hunting for food, a part of everyday life. Demonstrates the two different worlds. Symbolises sight for Priam in a new world…when he enters foreign places with Somax the eagle sees for him.

Question 49

Symbol: Fingerlings (fish)

Answer 49

an equaliser of humans, the see beyond status and wealth and treat everyone equal. Helps to break down social divides.