Poems Past and Present Guide

A reminder that a Guide to this collection is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Past-Present-English-Literature/dp/1541088786/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1539621931&sr=8-7

Telling Tales: short story anthology Guide from Amazon

Hi all.  In case you don't have it, here is the link to my Guide to the short stories in Telling Tales, the AQA GCSE English Literature anthology:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Telling-Tales-anthology-English-Literature/dp/1544910428/ref=pd_bxgy_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1544910428&pd_rd_r=2e799183-d09a-11e8-a2ae-eb1aaf1fe785&pd_rd_w=XZ6uy&pd_rd_wg=eUkrA&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=466c8fd0-3653-4c9b-86fa-f9bc8fd2ae35&pf_rd_r=DXFFP6NCKR76B28VQ41S&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=DXFFP6NCKR76B28VQ41S

Korea

Here is another  extract from my forthcoming guide to the short stories, this time on imagery in Korea.

Themes, Symbolism and Imagery

This is another domestic drama which explores familial relationships and reveals the tensions below the surface.  It is a story about things hidden, deception and distortion of the truth.

The imagery is drawn from fishing, the activity that the boy and his father share.  The father can be seen as the “twisted hook”, the hook that he baits with worms “so beautifully”, with his talk of the promise of America.  The father has become “twisted” by his disappointment with the harshness of his life and his financial insecurity.  The eels in the wire cages that “slide over each other in their own oil” or the “other fish” in the boat, are sold off, like the father proposes to “sell off” his son, like the lost boys, Luke, Michael and Sam, have been “sold” to bring in money for their families.  The bait, the “crawling worms”, that the boy sees just before he goes out to set the night line, is his father’s apparent concern for his future and his suggestion that a better life is to be found in America.  But these worms crawl “in darkness” – the darkness at the heart of the father’s twisted soul.  

Links

The Son, like Elizabeth in “Odours of Chrysanthemums” or Sandra in “The Darkness Out There”, is faced with a shocking revelation that “things are not as they seem”.  “The Darkness Out There” also has a dark secret at its heart and explores the theme of hidden motivations

How does the writer use symbols in 'Chemistry'?

Guide to the Poems Past and Present AQA Anthology

Here is the link to my poetry Guide - so that you have it to hand.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Past-Present-English-Literature/dp/1541088786/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488882359&sr=1-3&keywords=liz+croft+poetry

Hello all!   This blog hasn't been updated recently but as it exists, it ought to be used!

I am preparing the second Guide for GCSE on "Telling Tales" short stories.  There is quite a lot out there already, but it keeps me busy.  I am attaching the commentary on the first story.  Can you Comment and let me know what you think.  Is it useful?  Does it fill in some gaps?  Do you like the split into elements of the stories - plot, characterisation, themes etc.?  Feedback welcomed.

I am hoping to get it out by Easter.

Chemistr

A Family Supper

This may be useful for context.