To My Nine Year Old Self Flashcards
TITLE
- emphasises different identities
- emphasises change
- epistolary format
“You must forgive me. Don’t look so surprised”
- Imperative : simplistic / directory - authoritative and antiquated. Older generation
- Element of remorsefulness and regret
- Caesura creates separation between two and 2nd person pronoun. Emphasises lack of identity (irony)
“Eager to be gone”
- Emphasises child-like naivety : precarious nature. Discomfort of communication
“You would rather run than walk, rather climb than run rather leap from a height than anything.”
- Anaphoric repetition : element of eagerness to move emphasising aspiration and ambition. Progressive and dynamic. Physically energetic - bold / daring nature
- Embodies adventure and ambition
“Spoiled” / “Scars” / “Bruised”
- Motif of deterioration : emphatic of age, not ambitious but careful now emphasising a lack of freedom
“I have spoiled this body we once shared”
- Collective : ironic as it emphasises change and separation between personal pronouns
- Emphasises lack of permanence - transient nature of getting older
“Do you remember how, three minutes after waking we’d jump straight out of the ground floor window into the summer morning?”
- Rhetorical question : symbolic of freedom and escapism, ambition of children
- Time : symbolic of childhood nostalgia - full of life and bloom - fulfilment
“as fresh in your mind as the white paper to write it on”
- Simile : child is still ambitious emphasising freedom
- Metaphorical of a clean slate and emphasises purity / innocence
- Indicates speaker is no longer ambitious
“We made a start, but something else came up”
- Collective : past tense, no longer a dream
“A baby vole, or a bag of sherbet lemons”
- Vibrant imagery : enticing to a child
“That summer of ambition created an ice-lolly factory, a wasp trap and a den by the cesspit”
- Listing : made a start on dreams, excuse-like, lack of effort
- Innocuous to ordinary person but fascinating to a child
- Natural imagery contrasts scarring and injuries
“We have nothing in common”
- Irony : same person, emphasises change in identity
“Time to pick rose hips for tuppence a pound”
- Antiquated language : currency no longer in use emphasising archaic nature
- Monetary value: past of child v present day emphasises change
“Time to hide down scared lanes from men in cars after girl-children”
- Anaphoric repetition : creates drastic juxtaposition emphasising danger and fear
- Predatory imagery : children oblivious to danger emphasising naivety
“Rope” / “swings” / “buried”
- Domestication and urbanisation : freedom and natural imagery constrained
