GCSE English Literature short story + poem quotations

chemistry - ralph descriptors - predatory, manipulative attitude

‘barked’, ‘pouncing on something’

chemistry - ralph imposing on family, progressing relationship between mum & ralph

ralph as an ‘ever more permanent lodger’

chemistry - mum lashing out at grandfather, excluding him

‘you’re ruining our meal - do you want to take yours out to your shed?!’

chemistry - ralph taking over, motif of food/meals

‘the house where ralph now lorded it, tucking into bigger and bigger meals, was a menacing place’

chemistry - narrator’s epiphany, grandfather’s death was mum’s fault

‘suicide can be murder’

MPTT - carla defining herself by her job, role in school/life marked by salary, job as her identity - only seen for economic value

‘part-time catering staff, that’s me, £3.89 per hour’

MPTT - father’s condescending attitude, implying that culture/heritage/language is unimportant

‘what use is polish ever going to be to her?’

MPTT - carla’s insecurity, lack of social mobility, importance of her job - defined by it, feels separate to steve

‘me, carla carter, part-time catering assistant, writing to him about poetry’

MPTT - carla’s response to polish, affect on her

‘it went through me like a knife through butter … I felt my lips move. There were words in my mouth’

family supper - negative description of father

‘a formidable-looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows’

family supper - father’s traditional gender roles, dislike of doing domestic jobs

about cooking: ‘hardly a skill I’m proud of … kikuko, come here and help’

family supper - dad patronising + downplaying kikuko’s maturity, traditional gender roles

‘she’s a good girl’

invisible mass - classroom setting, hortense being singled out, fear

‘I stand in the middle of the room, surrounded by anxious faces’

invisible mass - classroom setting, shared fear

‘the stench of fear is in everyone’s nostrils’

invisible mass - hortense forgotten about in the back row

‘hidden, disposed of, dispatched to the invisibility of the back row’

invisible mass - classroom prison metaphor/imagery

‘the walls have been breached. the jailers are quick to realise that this battle is lost’

invisible mass - parents - separation, distance, unfamiliarity

‘these newly acquired people’

invisible mass - disbelief & strong feelings when learning about black history

‘we move back and forth between anger, total disbelief and downright outrage’

invisible mass - closeness to historical characters they learn about

‘they all come from our own back yard’

invisible mass - critique of eurocentric education

‘frozen information’

invisible mass - victorious ending, overcoming obstacles but not forgetting heritage

‘voices are raised, claiming, proclaiming, learning the new language in dis here england’

ozymandias - statue fallen into dissaray

‘two vast and trunkless legs of stone’

ozymandias - head of statue sinking into insignificance

‘half sunk, a shattered visage lies’

ozymandias - unpleasant description of ozymandias - facial expression

‘sneer of cold command’

ozymandias - bold confident statement, irony

‘my name is ozymandias, king of kings / look on my works, ye mighty, and dispair!’

london - control of rich over poor, powerlessness of people

‘i wander through each chartered street / near where the chartered thames does flow’

london - authority restricting human behaviour, mental imprisionment

‘in every voice: in every ban / the mind-forged manacles I hear’

london - pity for victims of conflict/power struggles, criticism of authority

‘the hapless soldier’s sigh / runs in blood down palace walls’

london - destruction & loss of innocence, social corruption

‘the youthful harlot’s curse / blasts the new-born infant’s tear’

COTLB - orders, critique of command/leadership

‘“forward, the light brigade!” / was there man dismay’d? / … some one had blunder’d’

COTLB - powerless but heroism of soldiers

‘theirs not to make reply / theirs not to reason why / theirs but to do and die’

COTLB - soldiers’ duty to listen to orders & die, biblical reference, soldiers have no identity

‘into the valley of death / rode the six hundred’

COTLB - battle - violent, noisy, destructive

‘volley’d and thunder’d / storm’d at with shot and shell’

remains - powerlessness, orders

‘we get sent out’

remains - expecting the worst from the looter, unsureness, turmoil

‘probably armed, possibly not’

remains - description of killing the looter, visions

‘I swear / I see every round as it rips through his life

remains - trauma, visions

‘he’s here in my head when I close my eyes’

war photographer - violence of war, impact on children, photographer’s trauma

‘fields which don’t explode beneath the feet / of running children in a nightmare heat’

war photographer - critique of western attitudes to war, amount of pictures / suffering

‘a hundred agonies in black-and-white / from which his editor will pick out five or six / for sunday’s supplement’

COMH - impacts of eurocentric education, othering & separation to establishment

‘dem tell me / dem tell me / wha dem want to tell me’

COMH - impacts of eurocentric education - loss of identity

‘blind me to me own identity’

COMH - happy ending, change to poem’s trajectory

‘but now I checking out me own history / I carving out me identity’