Part 2 Exploring Prose V Final
Part 2 Exploring Prose V Final
Part 2 Exploring Prose V Final
STUDENT BOOK
STUDENT BOOK
STUDENT BOOK
STUDENT BOOK
Contents
1 Introduction: What is a narrative? 4 .
Different types of narrative: genre 5
3 Exploring narrative openings 7
4 Modes of telling: narrative voice and point of view 4
5 Dialogue and voices 15
6 Narrative structure 18
7 Symbols and motifs 23
8 Prose style 25
9 Methods of characterisation 28
10 The presentation of themes 31
Contents 3
1 Introduction: what is a narrative?
The following sections develop your understanding of the main features of narrative and the
techniques that writers of narratives use to tell their stories.
We hear and tell stories all the time, in all aspects of our lives, from dreams and jokes to
anecdotes and novels. Stories help us to see and interpret the world.
In everyday use, the two terms ‘story’ and ‘narrative’ are usually used interchangeably, but some
critics define them slightly differently. They say that:
• a story is what happens and who it happens to (plot and character)
• a narrative is the story plus the telling of it – all the things that go into bringing the story to life
for a listener or reader.
Key terms Studying narrative means studying not only what happens and to whom, but also all the ways in
narrative which the teller (in this case the writer rather than a speaker) creates the story and the reader
story responds to it.
The critic Roland Barthes has said:
… narrative is present in myth, legend, fable, tale, novella, epic, history, tragedy, drama,
comedy, mime, painting … stained-glass windows, cinema, comics, news items, conversation.
Moreover, under this almost infinite diversity of forms, narrative is present in every age, in
every place, in every society; it begins with the very history of mankind and there nowhere is
nor has been a people without narrative.
Activity 1 1 Write down four or five examples of stories you have read, heard or watched over the past 24
hours.
2 Annotate each of your examples with anything you can say about how it was told, by whom
and in what context.
3 Share your list with someone else and compare your findings about the range of stories you
come across or tell in a typical day, and the ways they are told.
Activity 2
1 What makes a narrative a narrative? Here are four short texts. For each one decide:
a whether you think it is or is not part of a narrative
b what it is about the extract that helped you to decide.
Text A: Text B:
Earl Ober was between jobs as a salesman. But Doreen his And so I’m like, ‘How could you do that to him?’ and
wife, had gone to work nights as a waitress at a twenty- she’s like, ‘Well he did the same to me, so he deserved
four-hour coffee shop at the edge of town. One night, everything he got,’ and I’m like, ‘Well no wonder he
when he was drinking, Earl decided to stop by the coffee decided to leave you.’ And we haven’t talked to each other
shop and have something to eat. since.
2 Using the texts above to help you, talk about which of the following ingredients you think are
essential in a narrative (E); which are sometimes found in narratives, but are not essential (S); Take it further
and which are never found in a narrative (N). Against each ingredient, put a label (E), (S)
or (N). Choose three or four
tiny fragments of
a a teller your own from fiction
b more than one event or non-fiction texts.
Do any of your non-
c one thing leading to another (cause and effect) fiction examples show
d a moral or message narrative features?
What does this tell
e people you about how non-
f things taking place in time (a sense of time passing) fiction writers can use
narrative techniques
g description of places to engage the reader?
h everything is told in the past tense Present your examples
to other people in your
i events are seen through one person’s eyes
class, describing and
j a beginning, a middle and an end analysing the features
of narrative that you
3 Is there any other ingredient, not on the list, which you think can also be essential or typical of
have identified.
a narrative? If so, add it to the list and mark it with E or S.
4 Come back to this list after working on narratives for a while to see if your views have
changed at all.
Romance
Thriller
Fable
Anecdote
Detective/
Whodunnit Sci-fi
Fairytale
Spoken narrative
Novel Short story
Spy Ballad
Written narrative Mini-saga
Ballad Autobiography
Activity 3 1 Read these two lists of generic features and see if you can match each one to a genre.
A B
• a very short story • a woman is in search of love
• generalised characters or types, often without a name (eg • a possible object of her desire appears (not always
a young girl, an old man, an animal) obviously suitable)
• generalised, often rural setting (eg an unnamed village, a • an obstacle is placed in the way
forest) (misunderstandings, a competitor or another
• language that is not everyday, but has a more ‘noble’ problem)
flavour • the obstacle persists and becomes more
• a strong metaphorical element complicated
• ends with a strong moral, often made absolutely explicit in • it looks as if it is all going to end badly
the last sentence (eg ‘And so …’) • finally the obstacle is overcome
2 From your own knowledge, make a list of the conventions of one of the other written genres
in the diagram above. (Depending on the genre, you could use your knowledge of film to
help you, since some of the generic features are the same in books and films of the same
genre.)
3 Share ideas with other students looking at the same genre and debate the conventions.
Create a final, clear list of what you consider to be the most important conventions of
that genre.
Identifying genres
1 Explore the five openings from novels on page 8. They are written in very different styles and
Activity 5 told in a range of different ways. Fill in a copy of the chart below using a star-rating system to
show your first responses (* = not really, ** = quite a lot, *** = very much).
A B C D E
The opening focuses on the setting.
We get a strong sense of what the characters are like.
The narrator tells you a lot about him or herself.
You’re dropped right into the middle of the story.
The opening makes us aware of the genre of the novel.
The opening makes you want to read on.
Text C: From Th
e Road by Corm
ac McCarthy
When he woke
in the woods in
cold of the nigh the dark and th
5 t he’d reach ou e
sleeping beside t to touch the ch
him. Nights da ild
and the days m rk beyond dark Robinson
gone before. Lik
ore grey each on
e than what had
ness
H ou seke epin g by Marilynne
e the onset of so Text D: From ,
y younger sister
dimming away
the world. His
me cold glauco
ma m e is R ut h. I grew up with m r, M rs.
softly with each hand rose and fe My na andmothe
ll e care of my gr
precious breath Lucille, under th her sisters-in-
10
the plastic tarp . He pushed aw hen she di , of
ed
aulin and raised ay , an d w
himself in the Sylvia Fo st er d when they
stinking robes
and blankets an an d Nona Foster, an l
d looked towar law, M isse s L ily sher. Through al
east for any lig
ht but there was d the he r da ug ht er, Mrs. Sylvia Fi e ho us e, m y
none. 5 fled, of elders we lived
in on
ge ne ratio ns of husb and,
these her by her
house, built for
grandmother’s of the railroad, who
, an employee
Edm un d Fo st er tered it. It was he
d th is w or ld years before I en
escape unlikely place.
10 who pu
t us down in this
Text E: From The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré
The American handed Leamas another cup of coffee and said, ‘Why don’t you go back to sleep? We can ring you if he shows up.’
Leamas said nothing, just stared through the window of the checkpoint, along the empty street.
‘You can’t wait for ever, sir. Maybe he’ll come some other time. We can have the polizei contact the Agency: you can be back
here in twenty minutes.’
5 ‘No,’ said Leamas, ‘it’s nearly dark now.’
‘But you can’t wait for ever; he’s nine hours over schedule.’
‘If you want to go, go. You’ve been very good,’ Leamas added. ‘I’ll tell Kramer you’ve been damn’ good.’
‘But how long will you wait?’
‘Until he comes.’
Take it further
• Find one other example of a novel opening that you think is particularly effective and quite different to the ones you have
looked at so far. Share it with the rest of the class and explain how and why you think it works particularly well.
• Think about the effects of other strategies for starting a novel, such as epigrams (short quotations at the start), prologues
(introductory passages) or framing devices (putting the main narrative inside another ‘framing’ one). Frames often
introduce a character who will narrate the main story, giving the circumstances of how they first heard the story).
• Compare endings as well. You could create your own categories for types of endings, along the same lines as Blake
Morrison’s list. Perhaps your starting point could be to brainstorm the endings of books or films that you have particularly
liked, which you then try to categorise.
Exploring narrative
2 Exploring
openings
prose 55
9
Re-telling C
The cow was bored. Why was
it always the
same? Munch grass all day, swi
sh off the flies Re-telling D
with your tail, squelch about in the air, my
a muddy field, a cold chill in
plod home to the dairy. Life was Dark sky and nner. No
n’t much fun, ugh and no di
5 not if you were Daisy of Du fur damp thro er! With all
nberry Farm. rgot my dinn
Not even a nice bit of romanc dinner! They fo w an d a silly
e to spice things a stupid co
up. Just a lonely return to the that fuss over pu t ou t m y dinner.
barn and the ol d sp oo n they didn’t us l time
ua
endless dark night on her own 5
kitchen at the
. She had had I went to the d now I’m
enough. And seeing those lucky asn’t there. An
birds flying up but the dish w rg et me like
10 and free in the trees she decided Ho w dare they fo
to make her hu ng ry . n my claws
break for freedom. Why not give l go and sharpe
it a try? And that? I think I’l ddle. A few go
od
that moon looked so very invi
ting. on th ei r stupid old fi Th at ’ll te ach
10 bit of a kick.
scratches and ’t fo rg et m y
em a le ss on ! They won
th
in a hurry.
dinner again
Re-telling E
You may not believe me. That’s up to you. But I definitely saw a pure white cow jumping over the moon, that’s
one hundred percent certain. I hadn’t been drinking that night, I can assure you. The cat can vouch for me, and
the dog as well. I’ll kick him good and hard if he doesn’t! Ok, perhaps I had a little drink but there certainly were
strange goings on. It wasn’t me imagining it. That stupid mutt really was playing the fiddle, the cow was up there
5 frolicking in the sky and the silly cat was sat there laughing her head off. That much I can promise was true.
Look back at the re-tellings of ‘Hey diddle diddle’ on page 11, as well as your own telling of a
Activity 8 nursery rhyme. Decide from whose point of view each one is told. Is the point of view always the
same as that of the narrator?
2 Use what you have learned to identify broadly what kind of narrative voice is used (first,
second, third, omniscient, free indirect style and so on).
3 Explore each voice in more detail. For instance, is it the voice of a detached observer, is it
intimate and close up, does it sound like the voice of the character speaking to the reader,
perhaps using second person address, or does it sound like the thoughts of the character
pouring out?
4 Use the list of prompts below to help you explore how the writer has created this voice:
• sentence length and structure
• what kinds of words are chosen (lexis)
• formality or informality
• how structured or unstructured it seems as a whole.
5 Now think about point of view. Is it clear whose point of view you are given? Is there a single
point of view? Does there ever seem to be a gap between the narrator’s point of view and Key terms
that of the writer?
focaliser
6
epilogue
1 Read the commentary on Extract D below. Share what you notice about what has been
Activity 11 included. Annotate a copy of the commentary to show:
• which features of narrative voice and point of view the writer of the commentary
has identified
• whether and where the writer has explored the effect of these features or merely
noticed them
• how well the writer has used evidence from the text
• anything extra that you think would be worth saying, or that you disagree with.
2 Write a commentary of your own on the use of narrative voice in one of the other extracts on
pages 12–13.
3 Swap commentaries with other people in the class who have chosen the same extract to see
how they have approached it.
Extract D commentary
This is a first person narrative, in which the narrator remembers
events in his life and reflects on his own behaviour, explaining to
himself (and the reader) his motivation and trying to justify his
actions. Aspects of the language give the flavour of him talking
to himself (for example occasional informal expressions such as
‘rich, or richish‛) but it is organised thoughts rather than stream
of consciousness. The repeated questions, addressed to himself
suggest thoughts, for instance, ‘And what was it that she saw?‛ ‘But
come now, Max, come now‛ is speech-like and suggests inner conflict
as he tries to be honest with himself. Generally the lexis is formal
and precise – the writer uses words such as ‘astute‛, ‘essentials‛,
‘dilettante‛, ‘provenance‛, ‘indignation‛ and so on, which suggest to the
reader a particular kind of man, well-educated and used to reflection.
However, this is strongly contrasted with his crude description of
Bun as ‘This fat person‛. There is a bluntness about this that perhaps
makes us wonder about the narrator. It creates a gap between what
the reader (and perhaps the author?) thinks and the narrator‛s own
view of himself. Although the point of view is the narrator‛s, we don‛t
always share it.
By the end of the extract the narrator seems to have come full
circle. From feeling hostility towards Bun and resisting her view of
him, he ends up admitting to himself that he was always ‘bent on
bettering myself.‛
Activity 12
In this activity you will be writing a very short dialogue for three characters, to explore how writers
can use dialogue to develop their characters. Below are eight thumbnail sketches for characters,
which are deliberately exaggerated to allow you to quickly give an impression of what they are
like through their speech.
1 Choose three characters from the thumbnails and write one or two lines of dialogue for each
one, deciding how you are going to introduce their words as well as what they say. Try to give
a flavour of each character in their speech. Don’t use their names to give away who they are!
Here is one example to get you started. Which character do you think it is? Ivan Markovic
His voice trembled slightly. ‘Er…I’m so…so very sorry but would you mind telling me A rich Russian
where I’m supposed to be?’ businessman living
in London, who has
2 Read your bits of dialogue out to a partner and see if they can guess who they are from the decided to bid to take
dialogue and/or the way you have introduced them. over a Premiership
football team.
Salima Ahmed
Colonel Blinkhorn s, with
A young wannabe actres
d to
An English army man in his attitude, who is determine
80s, who now lives alone make it whatever it takes.
in a large house with his Lorna Lewis
housekeeper.
A dinner lady, who runs the
Timmy Dodds
canteen at a primary school
A cheeky 15-year-old boy, and likes to rule the roost.
who is frequently in trouble
with his teachers.
Emma Macdonald
A housewife, living in Davina Lloyd-Smith
Glasgow, who works hard at
Michael Maloney A young woman in her 20s,
bringing up her three lively
brought up in a stately home
daughters. A timid young man, who has just in Kent, who enjoys partying
started his first job working in with the sons and daughters
an office, alongside a boisterous of lords and dukes.
group of other workers.
Shite. Geoff was coming over to talk to her. She had once pointed him out to
Shona, who said that he looked like Marti from Wet Wet Wet. Nina hated both Marti
and the Wets, and, anyway, thought that Geoff was nothing like him.
– Awright, Nina?
5 – Aye. It’s a shame aboot Uncle Andy.
– Aye, Whit kin ye say? Geoff shrugged his shoulders. He was twenty-one and
Nina thought that was ancient.
– Soo when dae ye finish the school? he asked her.
– Next year. Ah wanted tae go now but ma Ma hassled us tae stey.
10 – Takin O Grades?
– Aye.
– Which yins?
– English, Maths, Arithmetic, Art, Accounts, Physics, Modern Studies.
– Gaunnae pass them?
15 – Aye. It’s no that hard. Cept Maths.
– Then whit?
– Git a job. Or git oan a scheme.
– No gaunnae stey oan n take Highers?
– Naw.
20 – Ye should. You could go tae University.
– Whit fir?
Geoff had to think for a while. He had recently graduated with a degree in English
Literature and was on the dole. So were most of his fellow graduates. – It’s a good
social life, he said.
In telling the story of the football game, a writer may well choose not to follow chronological time
exactly. For instance:
Narrative time
• The story starts with Jack in hospital, looking back bitterly on events that afternoon.
• It moves to the opening of the game, his nerves and failure to score.
• It flashes back to his selection for the team and his feelings that he must do himself justice.
• It returns to the game itself and his first goal.
• It follows chronological sequence with the whispered threat during the half-time break
and the second half goal.
• It returns to the present with him in the hospital.
• It ends with the scene where the boy fouls him.
2 Write your own five to eight sentence ‘bare bones’ sequence of events for a story, in
chronological order.
3 Then decide on a different narrative sequence, using flashbacks or other ways of using time.
4 Talk about why you think a writer might choose to use narrative time in each of the
Key terms following ways:
chronological time
a starting with the ending, rather than the beginning of the story
narrative time
b using repeated jumps in time, such as flashbacks or flash forwards
flashback
flash forward c setting different parts of the story in different time periods
d telling the entire story in reverse, from end to beginning.
Activity 16
1 Read the extract below from Wise Children by Angela Carter.
2 What are your first reactions to it? What effects do you think the writer is trying to achieve?
She fixed Tristram with a suspicious eye, for he was no kin of hers, while the
picture settled down on a flight of neon steps in a burst of canned applause as
he came bounding down with his red hair slicked back, his top-of-the-milk-
coloured rumpled linen Georgio Armani whistle and flute, Tristram Hazard, weak
5 but charming, game-show presenter and television personality, last gasp of the
imperial Hazard dynasty that bestrode the British theatre like a colossus for a
century and a half. Tristram, youngest son of the great Melchior Hazard, ‘prince
of players’; grandson of those tragic giants of the Victorian stage, Ranulph and
Estella ‘A star danced’ Hazard. Lo, how the mighty have fallen.
10 ‘Hi, there! I’m Tristram!’
The camera closes in as he sings out, ‘Hi, there, lolly lovers! I’m Tristram
Hazard and I’ve come to bring you …’ Now he throws back his head, showing off
his throat, he’s got a real old-fashioned, full-bodied, Ivory Novello-type throat, he
throws his head back and cries out in the voice of an ecstatic: ‘LASHINGS OF
15 LOLLY! LASHINGS OF LOLLY!
The show begins.
Freeze frame.
Let us pause awhile in the unfolding story of Tristram and Tiffany so that
I can fill you in on the background. High time! you must be saying. Just who
20 is this Melchior Hazard and his clan, his wives, his children, his hangers-on?
It is in order to provide some of the answers to those questions that I, Dora
Chance, in the course of assembling notes towards my own autobiography, have
inadvertently become the chronicler of all the Hazards …
3 Think of six adjectives to describe the writing, then compare your ideas with those of others.
4 Look more closely at the way the writer is using narrative time. How does she make us aware Preparing
of the transitions? Why do you think she makes the shift and why do you think she chooses to for the exam
draw attention to it in the way that she does?
5 Choose two of the following statements about the extract that you feel most in agreement You might want to
with or find most interesting. Find a piece of evidence from the extract to support each of track key chronological
your chosen statements. events and plot them
against narrative time
a The writer is playing with the reader, giving titbits of information and then backtracking so (in other words the
that she fills us in with the ‘history’ once the reader has become interested to know more. order in which they
b The jump back to a previous time is confusing and part of the writer’s deliberate creation are told). You could do
of a sense of chaos. this as a chart, where
the first column is
c The jumps in time echo the narrator’s jumbled process of putting together her own chronological and the
autobiography. second is narrative time,
d The writer uses film techniques to play with time in the narrative. with arrows from one to
the other.
e The use of time is closely connected to the character of the narrator and the
narrative voice.
f The use of time makes the text uncomfortable and difficult for a reader.
6 Use the statements and evidence to write a paragraph on how Angela Carter makes use of
shifts in time in the extract.
6 Narrative structure 19
1 On your own, write the first three or four sentences of the story of the child in the shopping
Activity 18 centre, first in the present tense and then in the past tense. (Half the class should write their
versions in the first person and the other half in the third person.)
2 In small groups (each containing at least one first and third person writer), take it in turns to
read out your two versions and talk about the effects of the choice of tense. Did the use of
first or third person make any difference to the effects of the tenses?
3 The boxes below give some reasons why writers might use different tenses. Read the
information in each box and see how far it matches what you have discovered for yourselves
and what else it adds.
Present tenseThe story is told as though the events are still happening. This might
make things seem uncertain as though even the narrator does not yet know how
things will end.
It can seem slightly odd (the events and the telling of them are supposedly happening
at the same time).
It is more common in first than in third person narratives.It can also be used to create a
sense of timelessness, as though everything has always been this way.
6 Narrative structure 21
This making of the past present, as if re-enacting it, is a device discovered by some 19th-
century novelists. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre uses it to memorable effect. When Brontë’s
narrator recalls episodes of special significance she suddenly shifts into the present tense,
tasting delight or pain afresh.
Some writers even include short passages without a main verb, making it unclear whether what is
happening is in the past or the present. This can create a timeless feel.
The following extracts are taken from Hilary Mantel’s autobiography, Giving Up the Ghost. In both
Activity 19 she describes a childhood memory.
1 Read the extracts and, in pairs, identify the tenses Mantel uses.
2 Talk about why you think Mantel uses different tenses in each extract and, in each case, what
the effect is on you as a reader.
Extract 1
This is the first thing I remember. I am sitting up in my pram.
We are outside, in the park called Bankswood. My mother
walks backwards. I hold out my arms because I don’t want
her to go. She says she’s only going to take my picture. I
5 don’t understand why she goes backwards, back and aslant,
tracking to one side. The trees overhead make a noise of
urgent conversation, too quick to catch; the leaves part, the
sky moves, the sun peers down at me. Away and away she
goes, till she comes to a halt. She raises her arm and partly
10 hides her face. The sky and trees rush over my head. I feel
dizzied. The entire world is sound, movement. She moves
towards me, speaking. The memory ends.
Hilary Mantel
Extract 2
Preparing When I was a child we used to play with toys called Magic
for the exam Slates. There was a coloured cardboard frame, like a picture
frame, which held a rectangle of carbon paper covered by
Choose three short a sheet of clear plastic. You had a writing implement like a
extracts, ranging across 5 short knitting needle, with which you inscribed the plastic
your first text, showing sheet. Behind the clear panel, your secret writing appeared;
the writer’s choice of then you pulled up a cardboard tab, swished up the ‘slate’,
tenses and how that and the marks vanished.
affects meaning. You The magic slate was a favourite toy of mine. I could
could go on to do the 10 write anything I liked, but if someone loomed into view
same with your second I could disappear it in an instant. I wrote many thoughts
text to see whether and observations, and letters from an imaginary me to an
there are any interesting imaginary someone. I believed I was doing it in perfect safety.
points of comparison.
Activity 20
1 Think about the colour red. Draw a spider diagram to show phrases you have brainstormed
in which red often appears. Now, in a different colour, add the connotations of red, in other
words what red has come to represent. Use the examples below to start you off.
‘seeing red’
Anger
Red
2 Create a quick thumbnail sketch of a character for whom red might be a good symbolic
colour. Share your sketches with other students.
3 Think about one of these characters from narratives (or choose an example of your own).
How has the colour red been used in relation to that character?
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind
• Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
• The women in The Handmaid’s Tale
• Snow White
• Amy Denver in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
• the little girl in the film Schindler’s List.
4 All the characters listed above are female. Can you think of any male characters with whom
red has been associated? Explore your ideas about your findings.
Extract 1
Beyond the abandoned farm was a desolate no man’s land half marked out as builder’s lots, where
colonisation approaching from the next settlement along had been halted for the Duration. Between
the line of the railway and the wasteland of the lots, preserved for a few more years by the sifting tides
of history, the last pocket of the rural world pursued its ancient, secret life. Each of the rare excursions
5 we made into it was a frightening adventure, a series of ordeals to test our coming manhood.
And the first of the ordeals was the tunnel itself. Once again I hear our uneasy cries drowned by
the huge thunder of the train passing overhead. Once again I see the circle of unwelcoming daylight
at the end doubled by its reflection in the great lake that collected inside the tunnel after rain. Once
again I feel the awkward twist of my body as I turn to edge sideways along the narrow causeway left
10 at the edge of the lake, and simultaneously lean away from the glistening, dripping, wetness of the
brickwork. Once again I feel the dank touch of the walls on my hair and shoulder, and brush at the
foul exudations they’ve left. Once again I try to wipe the dark-green slime off my hands.
Extract 2
I put the cigarette into my mouth. The cork tip is moist from her lips, like the flap of her purse. Very
carefully I suck in a little smoke. I feel the presence of it inside my mouth, as if it were something solid.
She takes her hands away from her eyes and watches me, weeping and blinking. I hold the smoke in my
mouth for a few moments, careful not to get it into my throat. It tastes of importance and of being grown
5 up. I lift my head, as I’ve seen Geoff do, and blow the smoke out again. I sigh with satisfaction.
She takes the cigarette back. ‘How do you do it?’ she asks humbly.
‘You just have to get used to it.’
She screws up her eyes and takes another little puff.
‘Now blow it out,’ I instruct her. She blows the smoke out, and jerks her head back to keep her eyes
10 away from it.
She hands me the cigarette, and watches as I take another little mouthful.
‘Do you feel all right?’ she asks. ‘It’s supposed to make you feel sick.’
Do I feel all right? I feel … something disturbing. I don’t think it’s sick. I think it’s … a kind of soaring
sensation. I have a sense of freedom, as if I’m no longer bound by the rules and restrictions of childhood.
15 I can open locked boxes and break meaningless oaths with impunity. I’m on the verge of understanding
mysteries that have been closed to me. I’m emerging from the old dark world of tunnels and terrors, and
coming to a broad upland where the air’s bright, and remote blue horizons open all around.
Activity 22
1 On your own, read the extract below from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and jot down a few
first thoughts about your impressions of the style. This could be a list of five or six adjectives or
short phrases.
He studied the sky. There were days when the ashen overcast thinned and now the
standing trees along the road made the faintest of shadows over the snow. They went
on. The boy wasn’t doing well. He stopped and checked his feet and retied the plastic.
When the snow started to melt it was going to be hard to keep their feet dry. They
5 stopped often to rest. He’d no strength to carry the child. They sat on the pack and
ate handfuls of the dirty snow. By afternoon it was beginning to melt. They passed a
burned house, just the brick chimney standing in the yard. They were on the road all
day, such day as there was. Such few hours. They might have covered three miles.
He thought the road would be so bad that no one would be on it but he was wrong.
10 They camped almost in the road itself and built a great fire, dragging dead limbs out of
the snow and piling them on the flames to hiss and steam. There was no help for it. The
few blankets they had would not keep them warm.
2 Now listen to the extract being read aloud. On your own, make an instant judgement about
which features of prose style you think contribute most to your first impressions, using the list
in the box above.
3 Share your first impressions and your instant judgements to see how much agreement there
is across the class.
4 Now look back at the list of features in the box above and work through them more
systematically. Share out the features among individuals or pairs in the class, so that every
individual or pair focuses on a different feature and reports back on what they notice.
5 As a whole class, rank order the features to identify which you think is most significant in
terms of creating the style of the extract.
8 Prose style 25
1 Talk about how well this writer has parodied McCarthy’s style, using all that you have
Key term discovered from the previous activity. (If you see flaws, you might like to make a few changes
of your own to improve it.)
parody
2 Choose a short extract from another text, perhaps one of your set texts or a text you studied
for GCSE. Try rewriting it in McCarthy’s style or try rewriting the extract from The Road in the
style of one of your texts.
8 Prose style 27
2 Using the notes on your chart and points raised in discussion, write three or four statements
about the prose style of one of the extracts, selecting what you think is worth focusing on.
3 Develop your statements into a paragraph by adding one piece of evidence from the text to
justify each one, followed by one further bit of analysis or exploration. For example:
9 Methods of characterisation
There is no one kind of character or method of creating a character. Writers use a huge variety
of techniques, many of which you have already learned about, such as the use of narrative voice,
Key terms
dialogue, symbols and so on. This section pulls together what you already know, but also adds a character
few more techniques and issues for you to think about. role
In thinking about characters, readers and critics are most interested in: characterisation
realistic
• what kind of character it is and what makes them interesting within the narrative
caricature
• what role the character plays in the narrative
foil
• how the writer has constructed the character.
representative
Focusing on these issues allows you to comment on a writer’s characterisation and prevents you stereotype
from writing about characters as if they are real people.
Activity 25
Look at the kinds of characters listed below. Think of one or two characters from a novel or story
you have read or from films or TV programmes that seem to you to fit each description, and fill in
a copy of the chart.
Characters Examples
A main protagonist – the central character at the heart of the story
A realistic character
A caricature – an exaggerated figure of fun
A minor character – an ‘extra’ who only appears briefly
A foil – a character whose key role is to reveal something about the
main character
A character who works by contrast with others who all have something in
common (eg fathers, heroes, suitors, friends)
A character who develops and changes over the course of the book or film
A representative – a character who represents an idea (eg capitalism,
repression, youth)
A stereotype – a character who fits into a conventional character type (eg
romantic heroine, villain, orphan)
9 Methods of characterisation 29
Shoemaker Arnold
Shoemaker Arnold stood at the doorway of his little shop, hands on his
hips, his body stiffened in that proprietory and undefeated stubbornness,
announcing, not without some satisfaction, that if in his life he had not
been triumphant, neither had the world defeated him. It would be hard,
5 though, to imagine how he could be defeated, since he exuded such hard
tough unrelenting cantankerousness, gave off such a sense of readiness for
confrontation, that if trouble had to pick someone to clash with, Shoemaker
Arnold would not be the one. To him, the world was his shoemaker’s shop.
There he was master, and, anyone entering would have to surrender not
10 only to his opinion on shoes and leather and shoemaker apprentices, but to
his views on politics, women, religion, flying objects, or any of the myriad
subjects he decided to discourse upon, so that over the years he had arrived
at a position where none of the villagers bothered to dispute him, and to any
who dared maintain a view contrary to the one he was affirming, he was
15 quick to point out, ‘This place is mine. Here, do as I please, I say what I
want. Who don’t like it, the door is open.’
Themes are what readers have to address, rather than writers. You’re
dealing, as a writer, with generating a reality out of these scraps, and
they come together in a haphazard way. And slowly over months, or
a year, or two or three years, you impose a kind of order, so that you
have an intact world. And then you discover that you’ve addressed
certain matters, and that they repeat themselves throughout.
Ian McEwan, English and Media Centre interview
This is one of the ways in which different readers create different readings of a text.
Activity 27
1 As a class, choose three well-known drama series (for example, The West Wing, The Sopranos,
Heroes, Skins, etc). For each one, write down two or three words summing up what you think it
is about – that is, the themes it explores – and share these as a class.
2 Do some of your dramas include the same themes? If so, do they lead the viewer to different
conclusions? (For example, one drama might suggest that revenge is never justified, while
another might suggest that sometimes it might be.)
10 Presentation of themes 31
In conclusion
Throughout the ‘Exploring prose’ section you have explored the different choices writers
make and the effects these choices can have both on the texts they create and on the
readers who engage with them.
Reflect on the development of your understanding of the techniques and key genre
features of prose, with a partner or your teacher. Which aspects do you feel more confident
about now? Which do you feel are your current areas of strength? Which areas do you think
you need further work?
11 Corbis: Bettmann. 22 Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library: Drew Farrell.
All other images © Pearson Education
Picture Research by: Ann Thomson
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologise in advance for any
unintentional omissions. We would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any
subsequent edition of this publication.