Short stories grade 9 material

Question 1

Nick (Christina Rossetti)

Answer 1

• Allegorical fable, which bears similarities to Rossetti’s other works such as ‘Goblin Market’ depicting sin and temptation.
• ‘Nick’ contains Christian overtones of redemption and the dangers of jealousy and covetous behaviour. The story is didactic with the moral essentially being to know and be happy with your own advantage
• Hyperbolic/sensory language enforces a vivid image of Nick’s suffering and discourages people from behaving in a similar way to him
• Fairytale setting and language (‘not a thousand miles from Fairyland’ ‘a small rosy woman, no bigger than a butterfly’) creates a mystical and magical environment which is a more engaging format to present the moral. However fairytales were also usually dark
• Intrusive narrator, makes moral judgements, and displays irony by calling Nick ‘our hero’

Question 2

When It Happens (Margaret Atwood)

Answer 2

• Written during the Cold War period only a short while after the Cuban Missile Crisis when the fear of an apocalyptic scenario was very high. This story depicts a dystopian America of the future where a woman (Mrs Burridge) is anxiously waiting for a disaster to happen
• Use of tenses is very important in this story. The story is written predominantly in present tense even during Mrs Burridge’s description of an imagined future, to disorientate the reader, with the occasional switch to the future tense further adding to this confusion. The future is presented as certain with indicative verbs like ‘will’ rather than subjunctive or verbs like ‘should’. The effect is we are uncertain of the events and left with an uneasy and uncertain feeling
• The shopping list punctuates Mrs Burridge’s catastrophising to bring the reader back to the present
• Links to real struggles such as rising prices, growers being hit, strikes, these all provide a sense that, while Mrs Burridge’s fantasies may not be true, there is still something wrong and ominous in this world
• Title ‘When It Happens’, certainty of ‘when’ (so we know something will happen) but uncertainty of ‘it’ (no idea what it is)
• We are kept at a distance from Mrs Burridge by not using her first name, which prevents us getting caught up in her fantasies and continue to disorientate the reader because we share her thoughts and feelings
• References to time and mortality create poignancy as Mrs Burridge and Frank are shown to have a realistic and normal marriage, but they are both growing older, suggesting vulnerability. The sense of habit is juxtaposed by the uncertainty of the events occurring during the story