From the Cradle to the Grave

... She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wheel She listened to the ticking of the engine.

She got out of the car and went to the door. She turned on lights and put on water for tea. She opened a can and fed the dog. She sat down on the sofa with her tea.

Here the pattern she (did) is repeated again and again. What do you think the author is trying to suggest? Is the language itself representing something? Try rewriting this or a similar passage in longer, more complex sentences and using adjectives. Is the effect the same?

Activities

1 Imagine that the boy dies, and that the driver who knocked him down does not come forward. Write a short report of the accident for the local newspaper.

2 Would you like a more definite ending? Decide how you want the story to end, and write a final extra paragraph. Try to follow the author's style, using simple sentences, the mother, the child, and so on.

3 Imagine that the boy recovers. Write a letter from the mother to her best friend, telling her about the accident and Scotty's recovery.

Ideas for Comparison Activities

1 In the stories They Gave her a Rise and The Bath, parents are afraid that their child might die or be dead. How are these stories different in their treatment of emotion and suspense? For example, how do we learn what the characters are feeling? Write a short paragraph to summarize each story, describing the differences.

2 Did you find either story moving? Why? Which story did you prefer?

Same Time, Same Place

The Author

Herbert Ernest Bates was born in 1905. He began his working life as a journalist, but he made his reputation as a writer with his stories about English country life. The Darling Buds of May, the first of the Larkin family novels, has been a popular television series. He also drew on his wartime experiences in the Royal Air Force for much of his earlier writing, which includes the novels Fair Stood the Wind for France and The Jacaranda Tree. He was one of the greatest exponents of the short-story form, with an exceptional talent for portraying character sensitively and economically. Some well-known collections of his short stories are The Flying Goat, How Sleep the Brave, The Wedding Party, and The Wild Cherry Tree. He died in 1974.

The Story

'The earth is a beehive; we all enter by the same door but live in different cells,' says an African proverb. That may be true, but being alone is not the same as being lonely. Some people seem content to live alone in their cell; others need the companionship of families or friends, and see their cell as a prison or a cage. And old age or poverty can make a cell even lonelier.

Miss Treadwell lives alone, in a room which is very like a real cell. She is nearing sixty, and her daily life is a series of small battles against the enemy poverty. For though Miss Treadwell is very poor indeed, it is terribly important that the rest of the world should never know it ...

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 861