Here are my sample answers for the textual analysis we looked at in class. As a revision task you could compare your answers with mine.
Textual Analysis of page 6 and 7
- Explain how Alec has a duel role at this part in the play.
Alec has a duel role (two roles) at this point because he switches between the adult Alec, speaking standard English who is telling us, the audience, a memory, to the child Alec from the memory, who does not speak directly to the audience, who speaks in Scots.
- In the form of a flashback what major event does Alec relive?
Alec relives the night he found out his mother had died, how he felt in the days that followed her death until her funeral.
- Alec feels that two sides of his nature react to the news in different ways. What are these two “sides” and how does he reacts?
Alec feels that one side, the emotional, sensitive side can let go and give in to the pain, feeling the sadness and the hurt, this is shown when Alec says, ‘I was standing there, crying – real big deep sobs’ however the contrast to this is shown when, at the same time Alec also says, ‘But the other part of me, the part that accepted, was just watching’. This shows that Alec, through allowing himself to grieve has calmed himself down and is already beginning to come to terms with his loss in a rational way. His reaction shows both sides of his nature, one emotional and the other rational.
- From his religious teachings, what kind of “sign” does Alec half expect to see?
Alec half expects to see Jesus, ‘come walking across the back and tell me everything was alright’.This is because he has been told that those who die go to heaven and that religion can offer comfort to those in need. As a child his understanding of this is so literal that he anticipates something miraculous when in fact it is just another normal day
- Despite the lack of scenery, how does the author still convey a very real sense of setting, of what Alec actually sees as he looks out of the window?
Alan Spence conveys a real sense of scenery through Alec’s monologue which describes in detail the back close of the family’s tenement, ‘The sun shone on the grey tenements, on the railings and the middens, on the dustbins and the spilled ashes. It glinted on windows and on bits of broken glass’. Through this we can tell the era the play is set in, the place, which is Glasgow, and even the weather. We can also tell that the place is not particularly wealthy and seems quite run down.
- How is Davie trying to cope with his grief?
Davie is trying to cope with his grief by underestimating it, shown when he says, ‘Ah’v got a bit of bad news for ye son’, bottling it up, illustrated when he says ‘shove it tae the back ae yer mind ’and continuing as though nothing has changed which can be deduced when he says, ‘As long as ye keep movin it doesnea hit ye’.
- Do father and son manage to share their feelings of sorrow? Give a reason for your answer.
No they never truly share their feelings of grief. This is due to the time they are living and their social class; working class men of this era were brought up to believe crying and showing emotion was a sign of weakness.
Miss Tomelty: National 5 English 