Genre.

The exemplar romance genre.

• The narrative is in the third person - restricted narrative voice.
• From the female point of view, her thoughts and feelings are focused on.
• Colour - description of red, associated with love, danger, dark and sexy. She is marked out as different (everyone is in black).
• Red lips - confidence, attention seeking, drama, sexual (connotations of red)
• Sentences structures: various lengths and types. Shows control.
• Idealised body descriptions - superficial - lexical choices to associate perfection "flawless body", "custom-made suit" - wealthy & power, attractive.
• Mask = mysteriousness
• Narrative voice - because we are seeing it from her pov, we don't know who is it, the mask is the narrator.
• Secrecy - "hidden", "masks"
• feeling very conscious; narrative female voice, stereotype of women being self-conscious.
• Details of backstory drop in.
• Connotations - erotic.
• New York fitting in with the theme of glamour, power, wealth. - City living.
• Cliché & stereotypes.
• Superficial - she and the man are objects.
• Connecting - story is about.
• innuendo - sexual connotations, interpreted in other ways.  

AHWOSG - Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers:

- Mother is the star of the story in the beginning; he mainly focused on her and her illness.
- Parents both died of cancer, his mother died first then 32 days later his dad died.
- Cared for his 8 year old brother, at the age of 21 becomes his brothers keeper.
- Being his brothers keeper led to his story.
- Themes of death and responsibility.
- He had appeared four times since 1998 and his work is not pure non-fiction, it is fictionalized.
- He has been acknowledged for his limitations (autobiography)
- Him and his brother move from Chicago to California.
- He tried to get into Television, MTV and documented his auditions and turns them into postmodern commentaries on his own self-conscious self-promotion.
- Themes of Self-awareness.
- He could of become a book reviewer.
- Without his tragedy he could've become a novelist.
- The beginning of the autobiography starts with his mother, talking of his relationship with his mother and her illness.
- Describes to MTV what is was like to grow up in Lake Forest in Chicago.
- Part of generation X
- Title is described as "hyperbolic"

AHWOSG - Extract from page 3/4

Page 3/4

This extract is about Dave Eggers' mother and her illness, "they took my mothers stomach out about six months ago..." suggesting she is seriously, terminally ill. Eggers' plays with various tenses and speaks of this as if it was literally six months ago, this shows his memory of his mother and her illness is very raw and it is still there, clear. Eggers states "there wasn't a lot left to remove" this shows his mother has had her stomach removed gradually to get rid of the illness. "They tied the [something] to the [something], hoped that they had removed the offending portion" the use of the parentheses, shows he hasn't got the language to described explicitly what the medial terms are because he does not care for them, he is less interested in the scientific side of it and is more interested in the literary side. Eggers' mother goes onto chemotherapy and later finds out the doctors didn't remove all of the cancer and unfortunately it had grown and spread across her body. "It had grown, it had come back, it had laid eggs" the use of repetition triad "it had", describes the process of the cancer growing and Eggers' refers the cancer to an alien "it was stuck to the side of the spaceship." Eggers talks of his mothers progress during cancer and how she wore wigs while her hair began to grow back, as if she is getting better however "six months later she began to have the pain again" he asked "was it indigestion?" this shows Eggers' hope that his mother is not getting worse again, he knows the cancers back however he uses indigestion as a way of hope.

KEY THEMES: death, family relationships and change.

AHWOSG - Structure of sentences:

Sentence types and function

Minor: "bump."
Simple: "I went to Tesco."
Compound: "I went to Tesco but forgot my shopping list."
Complex: "I went to Tesco. In order to get there, I had to drive."
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Page 14 - "I have plans for them... i'll run them over with my car."

• Various declaratives - to show what he would like to do to his neighbours and people who are looking in and know there situation.
• Hyphens used with embedded clauses - punctuation used relating to his state of mind (wild)
• Exclamatory sentences used to exaggerate his imagination of the people he hurts are saying.
• "I'll run them over with my car." - simple sentence, only one used within the paragraph. Sums up his emotion, of anger, scared, upset.
• Mainly a lot of on-going complex sentences to link to the complexity of the ways in which he wants to hurt these people who know his situation.
• "nosy", "inquisitive", "pitying" - lexis used linking to grief or an after death situation; also the italics of the neighbours speaking are related to these words. "I hear she's" (nosy); "what will happen to that little poor bo-" (inquisitive); "Jesus Christ I'm sorry" (pity).
• A lot of the complex sentences and description relates to his continuous anger towards these people who are gossiping; and it also adds to his detail to his fantasy of killing everyone who knows.
• The detail when he explains what he is going to do to those people; show his wild imagination/fantasy and also show his emotions.
• brief psychopathic moment; led on by a family walking by- which leads to him being paranoid and fantasising what he is going to do to those who knows.
• "I have plans for them" - he's thought about it a lot, obsession with death due to his situation.
• These fantasy's occur while mother is having a nosebleed - distracting mechanism.
• Emotional state - fragmented broken mind, like the embedded clauses. First time in the book displaying his real emotion; imaginative life he has, he is a dreamer.
• Punctuation used to show what his state of mind was like during that time.
• The detail of the pain "I pull out hearts and intestines" - symbolises his mother and her pain. He wants them to feel his mothers pain.
• Violence - normality, choice of verbs he uses to show his violence. Violent imagery.
• interrogative "can't you see it?" to interrupt his own narrative; to check if the reader is following his train of thought.

The History Boys- interview scene.

At the beginning of page 84, the conversation on society’s negative attitudes towards women is continued. Timms states “it’s not our fault, miss. It’s just the way it is”, the use of the inclusive pronoun “our” places Timms as a voice for all men, stating a reason that men don’t take responsibility for how women are negatively portrayed. The use of the declarative sentence “it’s just the way it is” shows Timms is accepting of how women are treated and is not willing to change this view.  Lockwood adds a quote from a famous philosopher “the world is everything that is the case” then he states “Wittgenstein, miss” this shows arrogance when he talks of the status quo and is very patronising towards Mrs Lintott, as if she isn’t smart enough to know who Wittgenstein is. Mrs Lintott becomes very dismissive and replies with “I know its Wittgenstein, thank you”. Lockwood has tried to challenge her power and now her being dismissive shows her trying to maintain that power. Mrs Lintott uses a euphemism to reply to Lockwood “did he travel on the other bus?” She creates inappropriate humour here, a coded way of stating Wittgenstein is gay, then humour is added when Hector is lost within the conversation, the repetition of “bus?” shows he doesn’t understand Mrs Lintott’s euphemism. Mrs Lintott begins to speak her mind and states “’the world is everything that is the case’ seem actually rather a feminine approach to things… a real man would be trickier ‘the world is everything that can be made to seem the case’” Mrs Lintott changes the quote and adds “made” and “seem” implying men manipulate the situation, life and society to be on top. This links to Irwin as a man, he manipulates the situation to be on top. She is the opposition to Irwin when it comes to History and gender issues. Mrs Lintott uses polysyllabic lexis such as “dispiriting” and “masculine ineptitude” to describe men in history and in general as useless. 

Within this paragraph she uses a lot of interrogatives like “can you?” and “why do you think?” to question the boys on how women are treated negatively. Timms starts to add humour by rudely replying to Mrs Lintott’s question “no tits?” and Hector adds to this by saying “hit that boy”. The men add humour because they love to play games; they see all of it as a game. This takes the focus off of Mrs Lintott however she regains control of the conversation by being very assertive within her speech “I’ll tell you why.” In her speech you can see Mrs Lintott has strong views about how women have been written out, these may be Bennett's views but are shown through Mrs Lintott, as she is the only female character. The use of the adjective “bow-wow” and the verb “frolic” creates imagery of a puppy dog and shows she believes the reason why women are not historians is because women don’t act like little puppy dogs. She is derogative about men, as she feels they get carried away with things and she uses more negative lexis about men “continuous incapability’s of men” within her speech; she is very dismissive to the whole subject. Mrs Lintott continues to focus on women using feminine lexis such as “flowers”, “frolic”, “gracefully”, she also states how “they never get round the conference table” this quote has connotations of discussion, male power, decision making and meetings, something women are never involved in. Most people in power are men, and back in the 80’s to now women are still being written out. Mrs Lintott uses imagery when saying “history is women following behind with the bucket” it states a clear picture of how women pick up the pieces of men’s mistakes.

The History Boys - Mrs Lintott

Mrs Lintott: They know their stuff. Plainly stated and properly organised facts need no presentation, surely.
Headmaster: Oh, Dorothy. I think they do. 'The facts: serving suggestion.'
Mrs Lintott: A sprig of parsley you mean? Or an umbrella in the cocktail? Are dons so naive?

Mrs Lintott shows confidence in her teaching “they know their stuff” she knows her teaching is good because she teaches them “organised facts” and that is what Mrs Lintott is, she is very factual, she is associated with facts. When she says “plainly stated and properly organised” it is like she is describing herself here, how she is organised within herself and her teaching. When the headmaster states “the facts: serving suggestion” he means that the facts are the recipe for success but the “serving suggestion” means she needs that je ne sais quoi that Hector and Irwin have while teaching. This shows the headmaster agrees that she is “plainly stated”. Mrs Lintott mocks this and extends his imagery metaphor by saying “a sprig of parsley you mean? Or an umbrella in cocktail?” it is like she is being told to spice up her teaching.

Durham was very good for history; it's where I had my first pizza. Other things, too, of course, but it's the pizza that stands out.

This shows Mrs Lintott went to university but her parties, relationships and education wasn’t very exciting or was quite rubbish. It’s the “pizza that stands out” showing that nothing was very exciting for her.

Mrs Lintott: The new man seems clever.
Hector: Depressingly so.
Mrs Lintott: Men are, at history, of course.
Hector: Why history particularly?
Mrs Lintott: Story-telling so much of it, which is what men do naturally. My ex, for instance. He told stories.
Hector: Was he an historian?
Mrs Lintott: Lintott? No. A chartered accountant. Legged it to Dumfries.

This section shows Mrs Lintott’s view on men and reveals a little bit about her husband. She states the new man “seems” clever, this shows her certainty towards Irwin’s intelligence. She then reveals her thoughts on men and how they are clever at history but at the “story-telling” part, she states it is “what men do naturally” she then relates it to her ex-husband. Mrs Lintott states he was good at story—telling, this may imply he lied to her and made up stories due to his unfaithfulness. This explains Mrs Lintott’s views and feelings towards men.

On Dakin: Actually I wouldn't have said he was sad. I would have said he was cunt-struck.

Mrs Lintott is the only women in the play; she represents all women. For Mrs Lintott to use the word “cunt-struck” is very surprising because it is seen as offensive towards women. The fact that she uses, really challenges the norm of society, where men use that word to offend women, instead she uses it too.

Rudge: You've force fed us the facts; now we're in the process of running around acquiring flavour.

Rudge describes Mrs Lintott as forceful in the way she teaches. “You’ve force fed us” this shows she is aggressive in teaching and education. Rudge also states they are “running around acquiring flavour” this links to earlier in the play, where Mrs Lintott describes herself as “plainly stated and organised” as she is associated with “organised facts”. However Rudge states how Irwin and Hector are so original and unique that Lintott lacks originality and spontaneous teaching. Her teaching includes plain, organised facts. 

The History Boys - Dramatic Structure

Bennett shows a flexible use of time within the play; this is shown in Irwins opening monologue when we are introduced to a man “in a wheelchair, in his forties” however throughout most of the play he is “twenty-five” and able to walk. This playful use of time has been to set up an enigma because we do not find out the circumstances, as to why he’s in a wheelchair, until the closing of the play. Bennett uses the flash-forward technique during Hectors eccentric lessons, where Timms steps outside of the time frame and says “The hitting never hurt. It was a joke. None of us cared. We lapped it up” the sudden switch may prompt the audience to wonder if Timms is addressing them directly from the future, in which he is looking back at the events of his past. Later in the play another flash-forward technique occurs however five years into the future. Five years later Irwin is once again in his wheelchair, which tells us his accident will occur soon, and Irwin meets one of the students but this time he is identified as a ‘man’. The label ‘man’ from ‘boy’ expresses the passing of time. The man Irwin meets is Posner, one of the most fragile of the boys, who is now in therapy and clinging onto his past. The fast-forward technique increases the sense of urgency and inevitability. The main goal of the play is that the boys successfully enter Oxbridge, and this does happen however the fast-forward shows the future disappointment for both Irwin and Posner and it changes the perception of the play.

Irwin’s fate is foreshadowed throughout the play and the fate of Hector comes as a tragic surprise, soon after the boys’ success Hector is killed in a motorcycle accident that paralyses Irwin. Scripps’ narration of the accident is followed by a presentation of Hector’s funeral, which Mrs Lintott steps out of the time frame and states “they became solicitors, chartered accountants, teachers even…”. Scripps and Mrs Lintott are perfect to take the role of narration because they are both outsiders. Mrs Lintott is an outsider, due to her separation from the male environment and Scripps is an outsider through his psychological nature as an observer. They are characters, whose position of outsiders has given them a deeper perception of time and its patterns.

Bennett’s most common use of intertextuality in the play occurs in the recital of poetry, mostly by Hector or by the boys he has taught. He chooses his intertextuality references carefully, using words from the past to illuminate the present concerns of the characters. Thomas Hardy’s “Drummer Hodge” is used to symbolise the connection between Hector and Posner. He used the poem characters ‘Drummer Hodge and Hardy’ to link to the characters in the play ‘Hector and Posner’ both characters are unified through words and themes.

The boys show their skills at recital and effectiveness as a group by reading the poem, we are seeing a play from the early 21^st century, set in the 1980s, using a poem from the 60s to describe 1914. These layers of time moving forward from the past demonstrates one the central message:  that we can learn from times beyond our own lives through the literature left scattered through the decades and centuries, in what Hector describes as a game of 'pass it on'. The intertextual references continue throughout the play, reflecting and commenting on the characters and events. Historical references move from world war 1 in act 1 through to world war 2 in act 2, this reflects the darker tone of the play. Humour is used to counterpoint these uncomfortable discussions, such as the boys’ comedic emulation of the film Brief Encounter, a story of an extra-marital affair, this links to the physical relationship between Hector and his boys and also Irwin and Dakin. This 1980s setting comments on the role of sexuality and sin in education. Bennett has not only portrayed the interchange of the boys’ transition from school to university but also the past and the future of their lives.

The History Boys - Representing Speech

We know that the play is set in a school because Bennett uses words that link to school life such as "classroom", "a schoolmaster", "general studies" and "knowledge". On pages four and five Hector has the most dialogue, this shows he has the most authority, Bennett uses an elliptical style, cutting out certain phrases or words to create spoken colloquial language; he also uses a lot of punctuation, such as full stops or ellipses and the even the word "pause", to create pauses within the speech showing realistic spoken language. There is a lot of back-channeling between the boys and Hector and Bennett uses adjacency pairs to show that the boys are mainly responding to Hector (the first person) or the boys sometimes ask questions. They have a conversation with hector and the minimal overlapping in the conversation shows who has more power between the characters, there seems to be quite a bit of turn taking which makes the speech seem unrealistic however Bennett uses actions (stage directions) to interrupt or flow with speech "points at Posner" and "Posner looks up the word in the dictionary", this creates pauses within the speech. Also the use of repetition from Hector after Akthar shows emphasis on the word "A.E. Houseman" and Hector also repeatedly congratulates them on them passing their A-Levels. Not a lot of conjunctions are used within the speech on page four and five, it is mainly short sentences including pauses however the characters speech is fluent.

In the open dialogue, the spoken language used shows Hector is an authoritative character, As the boys help him take off his motorbike clothing they speak to him in french, from this we learn Hector has a close, friendly relationship with the boys. Through Hector's language we learn he is cynical towards A-Levels, he describes them as "your cheats visa" and belittles them "proudly jingling your A-Levels". You can tell he is a non-conformative teacher. The language Bennett has chosen shows Hector is intelligent as he uses sophisticated polysyllabic lexis such as "euphemistic", also you learn he has a passion for knowledge as he describes it as "precious". Bennett doesn't add any conjunctions in Hectors speech, he mainly uses short sentences to create an affect.

The History Boys - Analytical paragraphs on teachers.

Mrs Lintott believes passing an exam is down to knowledge and fact; you have to know all the facts in order to pass any exam, she is very authoritive and straight-forward.  Our first impression of Mrs Lintott is that she is very confident in herself and her teaching, as she describes her teaching and herself as “plainly stated and properly organised facts” and how they “need no presentation” this clearly shows her confidence towards her teaching. She is clearly praised by the Headmaster “Their A Levels are very good. And that’s thanks to you” stating her methods of teaching do work. Mrs Lintott is very aggressive in teaching, Rudge states she “force-fed” the boys facts and they’re “in the process of running around acquiring flavour” Mrs Lintott lacks originality, imagination and expression in teaching, this then shows how the boys compare her to Hector.

 

Hector symbolises knowledge, he is not a conformative teacher and believes in ‘learning because you want to learn and you can, it gives you freedom’ he does not conform to the rules of society and belittles and is very sarcastic about A Levels. He describes the facts of A Levels as “credentials and qualifications” however he refers them to “your cheat’s visa” as if A Levels are their ‘passport’ to Oxbridge, this quote shows this kind of jealousy coming from Hector because he never had this opportunity. Hector is very cynical towards A-Levels and believes “All knowledge is precious” the use of the lexis “precious” implies he believes knowledge is valuable, worthy and special, he describes it as “precious” due to his passion for knowledge.

 

Irwin is a young teacher who believes in learning because you want something out of it e.g. a career. Irwin is mainly associated with exams, he believes in order to get where you want you have to pass exams, there a means to an end. His choice of lexis “the wrong end of the stick is the right one” shows he turns things around with his words he uses. Irwin is cynical towards history because he feels it’s less about the history and more on how you present it “it’s a performance. It’s entertainment. And if it isn’t, make it so”. He uses imagery to get the boys more interested in the subject by using phrases such as “strip tease” and “thirst at a wine-tasting”. Irwin and Hector contrast each other on their teaching styles however they are both non-conformists.