Intermediate 2 – Textual Analysis
The following extract is taken from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee (a fabulous novel!) In this extract, Scout, the narrator, is describing her home town and her family life.
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the court-house sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then; a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks in the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people; Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself. We lived on the main residential street in town – Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment. Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was near-sighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.
Questions
1.Look at lines 1-8 a)What mood is created in this opening paragraph? (1) b)Explain briefly two ways in which the writer establishes this mood. (2)
2.Explain how the author uses imagery to convey the effects of the extreme heat on the women of Maycomb. (2)
3.Look at lines 9-15 Explain how the context helps you understand the meaning of “ambled”. (2)
4.In your own words, explain why “A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer.”(3)
5.Look at lines 16-18 Explain how the author’s use of sentence structure helps define the relationship between the children and their father. (2)
6.Look at lines 16-26 How does the narrator make clear the contrast between her relationship with Atticus and her relationship with Calpurnia? (4)
7.Look at lines 19-26 Describe what you think are the narrator’s feelings about Calpurnia and justify your answer by detailed reference to these lines.(4)
The following extract is taken from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee (a fabulous novel!) In this extract, Scout, the narrator, is describing her home town and her family life.
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the court-house sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then; a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks in the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people; Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.
We lived on the main residential street in town – Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment.
Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was near-sighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.
Questions
1. Look at lines 1-8
a) What mood is created in this opening paragraph? (1)
b) Explain briefly two ways in which the writer establishes this mood. (2)
2. Explain how the author uses imagery to convey the effects of the extreme heat on the women of Maycomb. (2)
3. Look at lines 9-15
Explain how the context helps you understand the meaning of “ambled”. (2)
4. In your own words, explain why “A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer.” (3)
5. Look at lines 16-18
Explain how the author’s use of sentence structure helps define the relationship between the children and their father. (2)
6. Look at lines 16-26
How does the narrator make clear the contrast between her relationship with Atticus and her relationship with Calpurnia? (4)
7. Look at lines 19-26
Describe what you think are the narrator’s feelings about Calpurnia and justify your answer by detailed reference to these lines. (4)