Transcript The Flowers RCH SOL - School

Starter:
• Complete this sentence on your post-it note:
I used to believe _____, but now I
see that _______.”
(Think about things you used to think or believe as a child
but no longer do…)
Try to write more than one!
• Come and stick it on the board when you have
finished.
Coming
of Age
Character
is on the path to
adulthood
experiences
something
extreme and/or
makes a big
decision
undergoes a
change from
innocence to
experience
A First
Experience
Innocence
Experience
I think of…
I think of…
>
>
>
>
>
>
Innocence is the quality
of ________________
Experience is the
quality of ___________
__________________
___________________
__________________
___________________
Innocence
Experience
I think of…
I think of…
>
>
>
>
>
>
Innocence is the quality
of being ignorant
(unknowledgeable)
about the world.
Experience is the
quality of ___________
___________________
___________________
Innocence
Experience
I think of…
I think of…
>
>
>
>
>
>
Innocence is the
quality of being
ignorant
(unknowledgeable)
about the world.
Experience is the
quality of being
knowledgeable about
the world.
What to look for in ‘coming of age’
literature:
•
•
•
•
a character that is growing up
evidence of innocence in the beginning
evidence of experience at the end
an extreme event/big decision-- first
experience
Can you think of something you have read this
year which might fit this ‘Coming of age’ idea?
What were the clues at the start of
‘Through The Tunnel’?
•
•
•
•
•
The boy is only young
He is still hanging around with his mum
He doesn’t want to play on the safe beach
He is drawn to the rocky beach
He needs to swim through the tunnel –it’s like
a challenge
• He eventually does it
We are going to look at a story called
‘The Flowers’ by Alice Walker. It is set
in the Southern States of the USA.
In the exam you would have 15
minutes to read the text.
You need to read the questions first and decide
which bits of the text are going to be used for which
questions.
• Myopia:
meaning short sighted, or without insight i.e. knowledge
• Sharecropper:
Sharecroppers rented parcels of land which they farmed in return for a share
of the crop they produced
Language in ‘The Flowers’
• Myopia:
meaning short sighted, or without insight i.e. knowledge
• Sharecropper:
Sharecroppers rented parcels of land which they farmed in return for a
share of the crop they produced, normally cotton or tobacco in the
Southern States of the USA.
1. It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen
to smokehouse that the days had never been as beautiful as these. The
air held a keenness that made her nose twitch. The harvesting of the
corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise
that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws.
2. Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at random at
chickens she liked, and worked out the beat of a song on the fence
around the pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun. She was
ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her
dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.
3. Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family's sharecropper
cabin, Myop walked along the fence till it ran into the stream made by
the spring. Around the spring, where the family got drinking water,
silver ferns and wildflowers grew. Along the shallow banks pigs rooted.
Myop watched the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale of
soil and the water that silently rose and slid away down the stream.
4. She had explored the woods behind the house many times. Often, in
late autumn, her mother took her to gather nuts among the fallen
leaves. Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way,
vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes. She found, in addition to
various common but pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue
flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown,
fragrant buds.
5. By twelve o'clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she
was a mile or more from home. She had often been as far before, but
the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual
haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she found herself.
The air was damp, the silence close and deep.
6. Myop began to circle back to the house, back to the peacefulness of
the morning. It was then she stepped smack into his eyes. Her heel
became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose, and she
reached down quickly, unafraid, to free herself. It was only when she
saw his naked grin that she gave a little yelp of surprise.
7. He had been a tall man. From feet to neck covered a long space. His
head lay beside him. When she pushed back the leaves and layers of
earth and debris Myop saw that he'd had large white teeth, all of them
cracked or broken, long fingers, and very big bones. All his clothes had
rotted away except some threads of blue denim from his overalls. The
buckles of the overall had turned green.
8. Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where she'd
stepped into the head was a wild pink rose. As she picked it to add to
her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose's root.
It was the rotted remains of a noose, a bit of shredding plowline, now
blending benignly into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great
spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed, rotted, bleached, and
frazzled--barely there--but spinning restlessly in the breeze. Myop laid
down her flowers.
9. And the summer was over.
“Flowers”- response
What is the turning point and how does it
change a young girl’s life in this story?
"3,724 people were lynched in the
United States from 1889 through to
1930. They were usually men.
Over 80% of these were Black
Americans, but this figure also
included other ethnic groups.
Practically all of the people
responsible were white, and their
victims were often tortured,
mutilated, dragged, or burned,
before being hung.
Of the tens of thousands of
perpetrators and onlookers, only 49
were charged with a crime, and
only 4 have ever been sentenced."
Now that you read Alice
Walker's short story - come
up with your own original
opinion.
Why do you think Walker
wanted to write about this
subject?
What is she trying to say?
Do you think the story is
effective? Why / why not?
Question
AOs
Reading the
extract
Reading and
planning
Q1
AO1
Q2
Marks
available / 80
Weighting as a Suggested
% of whole
timing
GCSE
15 minutes
4
2.5%
5 minutes
AO2: Language 8
5%
10 minutes
Q3
AO2: Structure 8
5%
10 minutes
Q4
AO4
20
12.5%
20 minutes
Q5
Writing to
describe and
narrate
40 (24+16)
25%
45 minutes in total
(5 minutes
planning / 35
minutes writing/ 5
minutes editing)
Q1 and 2
• Reading and annotating 5 minutes
• Q1 5 minutes (max)
• Q2 10 minutes
Question 1
Read again the first two paragraphs of the
story, ‘It seemed to Myop…’ to ‘…tat-de-ta-tata of accompaniment.’
• List four things from this part of the text that
you learn about Myop. (4 marks)
It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house
to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been as
beautiful as these. The air held a keenness that made her
nose twitch. The harvesting of the corn and cotton,
peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise
that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws.
Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at
random at chickens she liked, and worked out the beat of
a song on the fence around the pigpen. She felt light and
good in the warm sun. She was ten, and nothing existed
for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown
hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Myop seemed happy (various reasons why)
She carried a short knobby stick
She liked chickens
She was ten
She was black
She lived on a farm
Question 2
How does the writer use language here to
gradually change the atmosphere?
•
•
•
•
You could include the writer’s choice of
Words and phrases
Language features and techniques
Sentence forms (8 marks)
How does the writer gradually change the mood here?
Use ONE colour to highlight positive words.
Use ANOTHER colour to highlight the negative words:
4. She had explored the woods behind the house many times.
Often, in late autumn, her mother took her to gather nuts
among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path,
bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out
for snakes. She found, in addition to various common but
pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue flowers
with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown,
fragrant buds.
5. By twelve o'clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings,
she was a mile or more from home. She had often been as far
before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as
pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little
cove in which she found herself. The air was damp, the
silence close and deep.
How does the writer gradually change the mood
here? Look for clues:
She had explored the woods behind the house many times.
Often, in late autumn, her mother took her to gather nuts
among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path,
bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out
for snakes. She found, in addition to various common but
pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue flowers
with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown,
fragrant buds.
By twelve o'clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her
findings, she was a mile or more from home. She had often
been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it
not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in
the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp,
the silence close and deep.
At the start of the extract, Walker says Myop has “explored the wood many times”,
suggesting that she is experienced in the woods and independent to a certain extent
but also that “her mother took her”. Today she is “bouncing” – the verb suggesting
happiness and being carefree.
However Walker introduces the idea quite soon that she was also “vaguely keeping
an eye out for snakes”. Snakes symbolise danger and also duplicity – from the Bible
story of Adam and Eve – which indicates that Myop is starting to be aware of
increased threat, even though at this point it is only “vaguely”.
In the first paragraph sentences are detailed lists of the flora and fauna to be found
in the woods, showing how much beauty there is, even if the flowers (symbolising
innocence and youth) are “strange”, perhaps indicating that things will change and
become unfamiliar for Myop.
By the second paragraph “more than a mile from home”, the threat is less vague.
Words and phrases like “strangeness” and “not as pleasant” indicate clearly that
Myop feels uncomfortable here. “Gloomy” further suggests the darkness (which
could represent that she is moving into uncharted territory) , and the “damp” and
“silence” make it seem oppressive and almost as if she is becoming trapped. The
noun that Walker chooses to use, “haunts” is interesting because we know later in
the text that she comes across a dead body and this makes the reader feel suddenly
as if the “strangeness” is ghostly.
By the end of the second paragraph, sentences have become less detailed and
complex ending with two simple sentences joined by a comma to show that there is
less to see here in this part of the woods “the air was damp, the silence close and
deep” giving the impression that all Myop can focus on is how unpleasant the
atmosphere has become.
Q3 Reading and annotating 5 minutes
Answering question 10 minutes
Question 3
You now need to think about the whole of the source.
This text is a short story.
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a
reader?
In your response, you could write about:
• what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning
• how and why the writer changes this focus as the source
develops
• any other structural features that interest you.
(8 marks)
Narrative voice
3rd person intimate and omniscient
Why?
= More detailed and observational. Adult, rather than childlike
perspective
Looking back at an event = past tense
Wider picture
Myop (Myopia) = a character who represents a wider group, rather
than an individual telling a real story.
The importance of history to the survival of humans – learning from
our mistakes?
Can you identify elements of the structure?
1. What viewpoint?
Who is telling the story? What perspective is it from?
2. When is it?
What time is it? What sort of sequence do I see?
How does it begin and end?
3. Where am I?
What’s the place, location, setting?
4. Who is here?
What character(s) have I met and how were they
introduced?
5. How is it made?
What shapes, styles and patterns can I see in the
sentences? Eg motif
Repeated symbol = motif
What is suggested by these two
different flowers and how they are
used in the story?
At first
Then
At this point
Narrows down
Shifts away from
Focuses in
The author returns to
Changes the scene to
There is a wide view of
Now
There is a change of perspective when
The reader / we are introduced to
This progresses to
This makes the reader focus their attention on
The extract begins by focusing on…
Walker then shows…
The character of Myop moves…
We then focus on…
Walker uses the motif of…
The narrative voice is …
The extract begins by focusing on Myop’s
happiness at the beautiful day and her
freedom. “She was ten and nothing existed for
her but her song…” sets the scene of her
innocence.
Walker then shows her movement away from
the safety of home into the woods…
Question 4
“The Flowers is a story about how difficult experiences lead to us
losing our innocence.”
To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Focus your answer on paragraphs 6-9
In your response, you could:
• Write about your impressions of Myop’s experience.
• Evaluate how the writer has created these impressions by zooming
in on key words and phrases.
• Write about the themes in the story and what you think the writer
was trying to show.
(20 marks)
Fairy tale quality?
Sentence Stems for Q4
I agree with the student in that I feel…
In this way, I feel the writer is successful in…
The writer creates a further sense of…
I ask myself as the reader…
This makes the reader believe in the story…
As we read this part, we feel…because…
This works because…
The writer makes the character seem…
This makes us think of…
We are shocked / surprised by…
We recognise how the character must feel when…
The impact of this sentence / description
Alice Walker SHOWS without TELLING...
1. The mood changes in paragraph 5. How is the air
described here?
2. Which word in paragraph 6 makes the discovery
sound abrupt?
3. Why do you think that Myop is ‘unafraid’ at first?
4. What is it that makes her ‘yelp’?
5. What do we learn about the dead man?
6. Myop continues to pick flowers until she notices
the noose. Why does she lay her flowers down?
7. What do the blue flowers and the pink rose
symbolise at the end (remember the title)?
8. Why is the last line separated from the rest of the
text?