Short stories Flashcards

Question

What is the story of My Polish Teacher's Tie ?

Answer 1

- Carla Carter is a catering assistant in a school - she lacks a sense of personal and professional identity - she hides her Polish side and devalues her job - she sends letter to a Polish teacher, Stefan, and they bond over poetry - however he thinks she's a teacher - she fears humiliation when he comes to UK, however he doesn't judge and they sing a Polish song together in front of everyone

Answer 2

- identity - social status - relationships between adults

Answer 3

- story was published and set in 2003 - deals with issues that come with trying to integrate into a new culture (prejudice, isolation etc.)

Answer 4

Helen Dunmore

Answer 5

- circular structure - begins and ends in the school staffroom - at the beginning, Carla feels unvalued and insignificant whereas at the end, she claims her space in the room and is the centre of attention - at the start, she uses simple language, whereas at the end, she uses more figurative language - Steve is awakening all of her language, not just her Polish

Answer 6

- "Part-time catering staff, that's me ..." - "I spoke Polish until I was six, baby Polish full of the rhymes Mum taught me. Then my father put a stop to it" - "The bird got lost ... then it sang and sang until it died. Everyone heard it singing, but no one could find it" - "his bright tie blazing and he sang a song I knew. It went through me like a knife through butter. I knew it. I knew it." - "It was a flag from another country, a better country"

Answer 7

"Part-time catering staff, that's me ..."

Answer 8

"I spoke Polish until I was six, baby Polish full of the rhymes Mum taught me. Then my father put a stop to it"

Answer 9

"The bird got lost ... then it sang and sang until it died. Everyone heard it singing, but no one could find it."

Answer 10

"his bright tie blazing and he sang a song I knew. It went through me like a knife through butter. I knew it. I knew it. "

Answer 11

"It was a flag from another country, a better country"

Answer 12

- exposition - in a classroom in Jamaica - Hortense is being grilled by an inspector asking her about the importance of Christopher Columbus - Hortense resents his legacy and there is a row - she learns she is going to England to join her parents - she goes to school in England and is placed on the backrow (she's thought to be stupid) - but she and her friends learn about their own heroes and openly criticise Columbus

Answer 13

- generational conflict - identity - growing up - belonging - power - importance of the past

Answer 14

- windrush generation - the UK needed help to rebuild after WW2 so they shipped large numbers from West Indies - these people faced a lot of prejudice - Columbus was often perceived as a great explorer but actually enslaved and mistreated indiginous people

Answer 15

- circular - begins and ends in a classroom, talking about Columbus. At the start, she is passionate but inarticulate whereas at the end she is informed and eloquent - the narrative voice moves between standard English and West Indian patois - this displays her desire to integrate one culture into another and not lose her roots

Answer 16

Claudette Williams

Answer 17

- "The inspector's eye pierce me through. They demand to be respected and obeyed." - "Stand up. Recite the adventures of Columbus" - "We discover heroes, rebels, guerilla fighters. They help us assert our right to be." - "Voices are raised, claiming, proclaiming, learning the new language in dis here England."

Answer 18

"The inspectors eyes pierce me through. They demand to be respected and obeyed."

Answer 19

"Stand up. Recite the adventures of Columbus."

Answer 20

"We discover heroes, rebels, guerilla fighters. They help us assert our right to be."

Answer 21

"Voices are raised, claiming, proclaiming, learning the new language in dis here England"

Answer 22

- a young boy lives with his mum and grandad, in grandfathers house, after the death of his father and grandmother - calm status quo exists - mum's new boyfriend Ralph enters (large + dominant) - Ralph and mum join forces - grandad is banished to shed, where he does chemistry experiments - boy steals acid to throw in Ralph's face but grandad dies by suicide in the night (drinks laurel water) - mum and Ralph's relationship flourishes - lonely boy returns to pond and sees grandad's ghost

Answer 23

- loss and grief - loneliness - relationships between adults and children - growing up - change

Answer 24

- Swift likes to write about "the moments of crisis in people's lives where a space opens up" - water is a recurring theme/motif in Swift's work - it symbolises both change and permanence

Answer 25

- circular structure - begins and ends at pond - opening is foreboding and has a sense of impending crisis and end is more positive - grandad's ghost is there, showing change rather than destruction

Answer 26

- written in first person from the viewpoint of 10 year old boy - we never learn the boys name - emphasises the universality of story's themes - unreliable narrator because he's naive and young and may misunderstand the complex situation

Answer 27

Graham Swift

Answer 28

- "The launch wallowed, sank" - "The house where Ralph now lorded it, tucking into bigger and bigger meals" - "You don't make things in Chemistry - you change them." - "Anything can change. Even gold change change" - "She never did explain. All her life since then, I think, she has been trying to explain, or to avoid explaining." - "But though things changed, they aren't destroyed"

Answer 29

"the launch wallowed, sank"

Answer 30

"The house where Ralph now lorded it, tucking into bigger and bigger meals."

Answer 31

"You don't make things in Chemistry - you change them"

Answer 32

"Anything can change. Even gold can change"

Answer 33

"She never did explain. All her life since then, I think, she has been trying to explain, or to avoid explaining."

Answer 34

"But though things changed, they aren't destroyed."

Answer 35

Kazuo Ishiguro

Answer 36

- Ishiguro has described the story as "just a big trick, playing on Western readers' expectations about Japaneses people who kill themselves" - the story is full of Japanese cultural tropes but he ends up subverting lots of these

Answer 37

"the fish has held a special significance for me ever since my mother died through eating one"

Answer 38

"my father was a formidable looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows"

Answer 39

"not only must they lose their children, they must lose them to things they don't understand"

Answer 40

' "Kikuko, come here and help". For some moments my sister did not move'

Answer 41

"studying the back of his hands"

Answer 42

"there was little conversation ... we fell silent again ... we fell silent once more"

Answer 43

- "the fish has held a special significance for me ever since my mother died through eating one" - "my father was a formidable looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows" - "not only must they lose their children, they must lose them to things they don't understand" - ' "Kikuko, come here and help". For some moments my sister did not move' - "studying the back of his hands"

Answer 44

John McGahern

Short stories Flashcards

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