CIE IGCSE: The Passage Question Tuesday, 16 December 14 Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

Jonathan Peel JLS 2014

CIE IGCSE: The Passage QuestionTuesday, 16 December 14


Format Paper 1 examines Poetry and Prose You have to answer 2 questions: 1 on

each genre You can choose between a passage

question and an essay question. The paper is “closed book”


From the syllabus


Assessment: equal weighting


Approaching the passage Focus only on the passage Question is about writer’s craft No need to tell the story, but show

knowledge of the context

Use the SCASI approach to focus your writing.


How does Hill create atmosphere in this passage? Note that you should place the passage

in context in your introduction and then write.

There is no need for generic waffle in the “Hill creates atmosphere through the use of a range of literary devices…” This is obvious and wastes time better spent telling us about them.


Passage


Setting Look for all ideas relating to setting that have been chosen to create

an effect: “Kingshaw stood at the gate…” Gates are barriers that once crossed

can open new horizons- good and bad. He enters a church – to cool off and to pass time. What might a church

signify? Note the description of the “clipped” and “neat” grass and the

“straight” hedge – a sense of order and tamed nature The gargoyle suggests some threat although in daylight he is not

scared of them The smell (always be on the lookout for sensory imagery) –creates a

threatening and sad atmosphere – note the simile about “no living or breathing person”

Decay is suggested by the hymn books with “some of the spines hanging off them”

The “white marble warrior” suggests coldness, death and possibly purity

The tiles cause pain He longs to escape to the “sunlight”


Character Kingshaw – give brief context: moved to

Warings as mother takes a job; hated/hates Hooper the son of the house; has recently been involved in an accident caused by climbing on a castle walls and ending with Hooper falling and breaking his leg. Feels guilty.


Character: Ideas to explore At a loose end and bored: “nothing happening, nothing

to see” Childish: sticks tongue out at gargoyles Guilt and fear predominate: “things came back on you.

You were never safe” short sentences for individual thoughts

Panic? “Oh God I didn’t mean it – yes I did…” Honest with self – confessional? “He wanted Hooper to

be dead because then things would have been better” Punishment: his guilt is obvious? Is this leading to his

eventual suicide? “He feared Hooper more than he feared anything in the world” No escape


Action A boy looks at a field and decides not to

enter it across a boundary gate He enters a church He falls to his knees and prays He is scared of his past and of the church He is surprised by a second voice (Fielding)

who tells him that he is transgressing - he is “not supposed to go inside those railings.”

“spun round” “struggle to his feet”


Style Section opens with Kingshaw alone - repetition of

“nothing” confirms the negativity of the sequence Uses reader’s senses Generally omniscient Third Person Narration Range of sentence length – focus on 173.4 the short

sentences for the frightened individual thoughts and the long sentence for the outpouring of frightened thoughts, with Imperatives and repetition of “Sorry”.

Kingshaw is not speaking in “” form: why? Maintains narrative… thoughts in head? Not out loud?

Pleads and despairs: “Please… please…never… never… o God…” (173.8)

Direct speech is used for Fielding’s interruption


Ideas Boy is troubled and seeks solace in God, though this

is not intentional. The confessional nature of a church allows him to share his guilt

He acknowledges that he is not really sorry and recognises that he wishes his “friend” were dead.

His final “O God…” – despair or mere interruption? His realisation of his guilt may be the beginning of

his journey to suicide Voice at end is also threatening – will be relief but

short lived.


TASK Read the passage that begins on page

104.5 : “He found the clearing again…” and ends on 105.9: “he was afraid of Hooper dying”

How does Hill create an atmosphere of danger and fear in this passage?

Documents

CIE IGCSE: The Passage Question Tuesday, 16 December 14 Jonathan Peel JLS 2014