a)The narrator is a character and says „I".first-person narrator
b)The narrator knows everything about all characters.omniscient narrator
c)The narrator tells the story from one character's point of view but says „he/she".third-person limited
d)The narrator reports only what can be seen and heard, like a camera.objective / camera-eye
2Which element is it? Write setting, character, plot, atmosphere or symbol.
Where and when / who / what happens / how it feels / what stands for something else.
a)The story takes place in a small coastal town in winter.setting
b)Nadia is anxious and avoids decisions.character
c)The letter stands for a decision she fears.symbol
d)The mother moves the letter to Nadia's room.plot
e)The kitchen is silent and grey.atmosphere
3Find the stylistic device.
metaphor, repetition, personification
a)„The silence in the kitchen was a third person at the table."metaphor (personification)
b)„She waited. And waited. And waited."repetition
c)„The letter whispered from the table."personification
4Write two sentences about a story you know: perspective and one symbol.
The story is told by … / The … stands for …
a)Story:Own answer.
Excerpt (invented, for practice): The letter had been on the kitchen table for three days. Nadia moved it when she wiped the table, put it back in the same place, squared its edges with the salt cellar. Her mother watched her do this and said nothing, which was its own kind of speaking. On the fourth morning the envelope was gone. „I put it in your room," her mother said, not turning from the sink. „You'll open it when you're ready." Nadia looked at the empty rectangle of table where it had been. It seemed, absurdly, larger than the letter itself.
1Narrative technique: Identify and explain.
Third-person limited? Omniscient? Look at whose perceptions are given („It seemed …").
a)Narrative perspective (point of view) — give evidence.
b)Which character's thoughts do we have access to, and where does the narrator stay outside?
2Symbols and images: Explain what the following stand for and how the text makes this clear.
A symbol is a concrete thing that carries an abstract meaning — say which meaning and quote the words that suggest it.
a)the letter
b)squaring its edges with the salt cellar
c)the „empty rectangle" that seems larger than the letter
3Characters and relationship: What do we learn about Nadia and her mother, and about the relationship between them, from what they do and don't say?
Indirect characterisation: silence, small actions, „not turning from the sink".
a)Nadia:
b)Her mother:
c)The relationship:
4Write an analysis (200 to 250 words) of how the excerpt creates tension without any dramatic event.
Point – quote – explanation for every claim. Present tense. Focus on the „how", not the „what".
a)Thesis, narrative perspective, time structure, symbols, characterisation through gesture and silence, conclusion.
Excerpt (invented, for practice): The letter had been on the kitchen table for three days. Nadia moved it when she wiped the table, put it back in the same place, squared its edges with the salt cellar. Her mother watched her do this and said nothing, which was its own kind of speaking. On the fourth morning the envelope was gone. „I put it in your room," her mother said, not turning from the sink. „You'll open it when you're ready." Nadia looked at the empty rectangle of table where it had been. It seemed, absurdly, larger than the letter itself.
1Narrative technique: Identify and explain.
Third-person limited? Omniscient? Look at whose perceptions are given („It seemed …").
a)Narrative perspective (point of view) — give evidence.(text)
b)Which character's thoughts do we have access to, and where does the narrator stay outside?Third-person limited narrator, close to Nadia: we get her perceptions („It seemed, absurdly, larger") but the mother is seen only from outside.
2Symbols and images: Explain what the following stand for and how the text makes this clear.
A symbol is a concrete thing that carries an abstract meaning — say which meaning and quote the words that suggest it.
a)the letterA decision or news Nadia fears; the text never names it, which makes the fear general — „You'll open it when you're ready."
b)squaring its edges with the salt cellarControlling the surface while avoiding the content: order as a substitute for action.
c)the „empty rectangle" that seems larger than the letterThe fear has grown beyond its cause; „absurdly" shows that Nadia knows this herself.
3Characters and relationship: What do we learn about Nadia and her mother, and about the relationship between them, from what they do and don't say?
Indirect characterisation: silence, small actions, „not turning from the sink".
a)Nadia:Nadia: anxious, avoidant, but self-aware; ritual instead of action.
b)Her mother:Her mother: observant, patient, protective without pressure; she acts („I put it in your room") but leaves the decision to Nadia.
c)The relationship:Close and wordless — „said nothing, which was its own kind of speaking"; understanding is shown through gesture, and the mother's not turning round gives Nadia privacy.
4Write an analysis (200 to 250 words) of how the excerpt creates tension without any dramatic event.
Point – quote – explanation for every claim. Present tense. Focus on the „how", not the „what".
a)Thesis, narrative perspective, time structure, symbols, characterisation through gesture and silence, conclusion.Own text. Check: thesis, limited perspective, time structure, symbols, gesture and silence, present tense, 200 to 250 words.
Two openings (invented, for practice). A: „I was fourteen the summer my father stopped speaking. Not to everyone — to the postman he was chatty enough — but to us, to the three of us at the table, he had run out of words the way a car runs out of petrol: slowly, then all at once." — B: „The Okafor kitchen was quiet that summer. Mr Okafor read the paper; Mrs Okafor served the food; the twins ate. The clock on the wall had stopped in June and nobody had wound it. Outside, the postman whistled."
1Compare the narrative situations.
A: first-person, retrospective („I was fourteen"). B: external / camera-eye. Think about knowledge, judgement and reliability.
a)Identify the narrative perspective of each opening with evidence.
b)What can each narrator tell us that the other cannot? Give one example each.
c)Compare how the two texts convey the father's silence: statement versus implication.
2Style and imagery.
Simile — comparison with „like / the way"; symbol — object with meaning.
a)Analyse the simile in A („the way a car runs out of petrol: slowly, then all at once"). What does it say about the process and about the narrator's way of understanding it?
b)Analyse the function of the stopped clock and the whistling postman in B.
3Evaluate: Which opening creates the stronger sense of a family in crisis, and for which readers? Argue in six sentences.
An evaluation needs a criterion — e.g. emotional involvement, or the reader's active role.
a)Closeness vs. distance, what is explained vs. what the reader must infer.
4Write a comparative analysis (250 to 300 words) of the two openings.
Organise by aspect. Point – quote – explanation. Present tense.
a)Introduction, narrative perspective, imagery and symbols, rhythm and tone, conclusion on effect.
Two openings (invented, for practice). A: „I was fourteen the summer my father stopped speaking. Not to everyone — to the postman he was chatty enough — but to us, to the three of us at the table, he had run out of words the way a car runs out of petrol: slowly, then all at once." — B: „The Okafor kitchen was quiet that summer. Mr Okafor read the paper; Mrs Okafor served the food; the twins ate. The clock on the wall had stopped in June and nobody had wound it. Outside, the postman whistled."
1Compare the narrative situations.
A: first-person, retrospective („I was fourteen"). B: external / camera-eye. Think about knowledge, judgement and reliability.
a)Identify the narrative perspective of each opening with evidence.(texts)
b)What can each narrator tell us that the other cannot? Give one example each.A: first-person narrator looking back („I was fourteen the summer …"), a child's view told with adult understanding. B: external narrator who reports only what is visible and audible („read the paper", „served", „ate", „whistled") — camera-eye.
c)Compare how the two texts convey the father's silence: statement versus implication.A can tell us how it felt and interpret („he had run out of words"); B can show the whole family at once and the environment (clock, postman) without any character's bias. Example A: the contrast with the postman shows the child's hurt. Example B: the stopped clock — no character notices it, only the reader.
2Style and imagery.
Simile — comparison with „like / the way"; symbol — object with meaning.
a)Analyse the simile in A („the way a car runs out of petrol: slowly, then all at once"). What does it say about the process and about the narrator's way of understanding it?The simile turns an emotional process into a mechanical one: the father is like a machine that fails; „slowly, then all at once" captures both the long decline nobody noticed and the sudden final stop. The narrator understands the past through an everyday image, which shows an attempt to make the incomprehensible manageable — and perhaps the adult narrator's ironic distance.
b)Analyse the function of the stopped clock and the whistling postman in B.The clock that stopped „in June" and was never wound symbolises a family in which time — and care — has stopped; nobody's job is to wind it, as nobody's job is to speak. The whistling postman marks the border: life and sound continue outside, the silence is only inside.
3Evaluate: Which opening creates the stronger sense of a family in crisis, and for which readers? Argue in six sentences.
An evaluation needs a criterion — e.g. emotional involvement, or the reader's active role.
a)Closeness vs. distance, what is explained vs. what the reader must infer.Own judgement, e.g. A involves the reader through the child's perspective; B is more unsettling because the crisis is only implied (clock, whistling) and nobody names it.
4Write a comparative analysis (250 to 300 words) of the two openings.
Organise by aspect. Point – quote – explanation. Present tense.
a)Introduction, narrative perspective, imagery and symbols, rhythm and tone, conclusion on effect.Own text. Check: both perspectives with evidence, simile and symbols analysed, rhythm compared, tone, reasoned conclusion, present tense, 250 to 300 words.
Narrative situation
First-person (I, limited to one character's knowledge), third-person limited (he/she, but we share one character's perception), omniscient (knows everything), camera-eye (only what can be seen and heard). Evidence: whose perceptions and thoughts are reported.
Symbols and images
A symbol is a concrete thing that carries an abstract meaning in the text. Name the thing, the meaning, and the words that suggest the meaning. Similes (like, as, the way) and metaphors show how a character or narrator understands the world.
How, not what
The analysis explains how the text creates its effect — through perspective, time structure, rhythm, gesture, silence — not what happens. Every claim with a quote.