Summary Literature 2a

Written by Denise Rossel

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We will discuss cultural based literature, link it to its background in history.
We will start with the 1950’s, Saturday night and Sunday morning is written in this period of time.
We will work back through history – Great Gatsby (1920’s) – Things fall apart – Pride and prejudice

27/10 – Exam 1

The exam consists of three important aspects/questions:

1.Two novels/ short stories and poems

2.Close reading question from a book (author ‘what does he mean’ and link it to the theme)
3.Compare and contrast question (two protagonists either from the novels or the poems)

The exam will be about poem(s) and the novels we already dealt with during the lesson

(first exam NO unseen text)

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 By Philip Larking

Background information:
Philip Larking is also known as ‘the poet of delusion’. The poem takes place in the 1950s (written in
1955).

Baby boom took place right after the second world war. Europe in shambles -> Marshall plan*-> new
generation.
*plan of the Americans to rebuild the countries which were damaged by the war.

Spirit of rebellion (later rock and roll).

They wanted to be more individualistic.

Secularisation :
After the second world war people did not want to follow Christianity anymore. Everything is broken,
a lot of people died, ‘if this is god’s plan, I do not want to follow him anymore’. The catholic church
did not play a very helpful roll during the war.

Analysis
A guy visits a church to find answers in church. He is missing something. Before people always went
to church, now that this pattern is gone he feels a bit lost (he lost the community feeling). He lost his
belief, he says these churches will go and at the end even disbelief will be gone. He says there must
be something here because so many people were buried around the church.

He is wondering what he can find in church. There is no textual prove whether the narrator is
religious or not. He does have a human urge, he feels like he has to go somewhere, there must be
some purpose in life. (for some people this is ending at the gates of heaven). He wants to find the
path he is supposed to walk.

A lot of things are left unsaid in this poem. The writer does care about what goes on in life because
he asks himself so many serious question. No one really knows the answer to these questions.

Pick a side: for/against/no idea and why?!

He is…….. because ….. textual proof

Rhythm: occasionally it rhymes, however not always. This is called free verse.
5 beats per line, but he differs. He is thinking so in order to convey this message (of him thinking) he
does not use Iambic pentameter. It is the natural rhythm of your thoughts. Conversational tone.

A Iambic pentameter (Iambic unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed , Pentameter: 5 beats)

Thud shud -> Assonance -> two vowels sounds

Tone: wondering, questioning, musing (when your thoughts go form one point to the other),
searching

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 The poem:

Once I am sure there's nothing going on

I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

He describes the church, nothing is going on. It is a not a busy church because of the flowers that
turned brownish. The church is not cared for (it is musty). He has no hat, but normally you take your
hat of for reverence. He is not wearing any hat so he takes of his cycle-clips. (he feels like he has to
take of something.. that is why it makes him feel awkward about it. In reality he does nog have to
take it off). It is the feeling of community that makes him do it.
Unignorable silence -> it is even more silent than normal. The silence carries meaning.

Move forward, run my hand around the font.

From where I stand, the roof looks almost new -
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

‘Here endeth’ end of a versus. He goes up to ………………………………………

He is not very happy about the building but he does take his cycle-clips off for reverence. ‘Irish
sixpence’ (coin word for six pence) -> he is in England and gives a Irish coin in order to give
something. he does not want to give much so he gives the only thing he has got.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,

And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

(he saw the scene and now he starts to think about its function) He goes to church wondering what
one should do with them in the future. ‘Shall we avoid them as unlucky places’ the church had
brought more suffering than good during the wars. (religion had a negative effect on the wars). If you
go to church something bad might happen… that is why he says we might avoid them as unlucky
places.

Just let them be

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Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

Here he refers to the building used for superstitious things: Advised night -> a specific night (more
superstitious).
See walking a dead one -> a zombie. Dubious women make their children touch a particular stone
because they believe it will have a special effect, maybe even an effect.
‘but superstition, like belief, must die’ <- he does not take religion very seriously
What remains if people do not believe anymore, if they even do not believe in superstition anymore.
If the building is not used for superstitious things either, the building will only be grass, weedy
pavement, brambles, etc.

A shape less recognisable each week,

A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative, <- a pause to think about it/emphasise

Who is the last person who will visit the building?? -> he names people who might be the last.
Everything will be gone according to the writer.

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt

Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground (that is not going to happen)
Through suburb scrub because it held unspoilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

The ghostly silt dispersed -> the

Even when he does not believe in religion, he still goes there.
You were baptized in church, you were married in church, your children were baptized in church and
you were buried in the garden of the church.
He goes back to church for answers about marriage, birth and death. He wants to know what it is all
about. Find the purpose of life.

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The church is what hold these concepts together. Now it is separated. People do not marry in church
anymore. Children do not get baptized ect. The church made people feel they belonged to a
community. When the church is gone, they lose that feeling. They are not told what to do anymore
so some sort of routine is gone.
The community sense/idea: you knew what to do -> this is bad/this is good.

A serious house on serious earth it is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

Main idea : It pleases me to be inside of here. Compulsion -> natural instincts. The questions about
life and death etc. he says ‘a serious house’ in which he refers to the church, maybe even in general.
We all have this urge which makes us wonder ‘why are we here’, ‘what is the purpose’ and ‘what is
life about’. A hunger in himself to be more serious. People wanted to be buried near their church ->
last line ‘if only that so many dead lie round’.
There must be something here. Otherwise so many people would not want to be buried around it.

‘a serious house on serious earth it is, in whose blent air all our compulsion meet,’ -> the house is
related to a lot of serious concepts: marriage, death, baptism , burial grounds etc.

The title:
Going to church -> function (you will go there to use it where it is made for)
Going to the church -> going to the building (visit it)

The writer want to believe but he cannot. (he says it is a serious house, but still)

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Summary Shmoop :

The speaker of the poem sneaks into a church after making sure it's empty. He lets the door thud
shut behind him and glances around at all the fancy decorations, showing his ignorance of (or
indifference to) how sacred all this stuff is supposed to be. After a short pause, he walks up to the
altar and reads a few lines from the notes that are sitting on a lectern. After this, he walks back out of
the church and slides an Irish sixpence into the collection box, which is basically like donating an old
shirt button.

The speaker thinks that the place wasn't worth stopping to check out. But he also admits that
he did stop, and that this isn't the first time he's done so. He can't help but wonder what he's looking
for when he keeps coming back to this place, and also asks himself about what will happen to
churches when there are no more believers left in the world. He wonders if they'll make museums
out of the churches, or if they'll just leave the buildings' doors open so that sheep can hang out inside
them.

Nearing the end of the poem, the speaker asks what will happen to the world when religion is gone
altogether. Then he wonders what the very last religious person will be like. Will they be an obsessive
compulsive, who just can't stop wanting to smell incense? Or will they be more like the speaker,
someone who's bored and ignorant about the church, and just passing by without knowing what
they're looking for?

Finally, the speaker just comes out and admits that he's pleased by the church because it's a serious
place for serious questions. Humanity, he concludes, will always have a hunger to ask those big
questions like "Why are we here?" and "Where do we go when we die?" And for this reason, the kind
of urge that created religion in the first place will never go away, even if organized churches do.
Sorry, atheists. If you were looking for a poem that just trashes religion and calls spiritual people
stupid, you'll have to look someplace else.

Summary per stanza

Lines 1-2

Once I am sure there's nothing going on

I step inside, letting the door thud shut.

 Right away, you find out that the poem has a first-person speaker. The guy (at least we're
assuming that he's a guy, for now anyway) enters the church only after making sure that
"there's nothing going on," which suggests to us that he's not very comfortable being there
during mass, a pancake breakfast, or any other churchy activities.
 Once inside, he lets the door "thud shut" behind him. "Thud" is a great onomatopoeia, and
seems to suggest a dull, lifeless sound.

Lines 3-6

Another church; matting, seats, and stone,

And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;

 When the speaker refers to the building as just "another church," he shows that he thinks
that all are the same, since they all contain the same stuff, like "matting, seats, and stone/
And little books" (3-4).

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  In general, the speaker continues this trend of carelessly glancing at the sacred objects of the
church by referring to them as "some brass and stuff" (5) and calling the altar "the holy end"
(6) of the building. Basically, the guy is both ignorant of the "stuff" he's looking at and
indifferent to it. Nothing here seems to strike him as meaningful, although he knows enough
to realize that it's supposed to be.

Lines 7-9

And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,

Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,

 When the speaker says that this same silence is "unignorable," you really start to get a sense
of the conflicting emotions Larkin explores throughout this poem.
 The final two lines of this stanza continue in this humorous tone, as the speaker, who isn't
wearing a hat, wants to show his respect by taking off a piece of clothing. So he takes off his
"cycle-clips," which are accessories worn to keep you pants from getting stuck in a bicycle
chain. Handy! This gesture on the speaker's part could show his growing belief in the
importance of religion, or it could actually be satirizing religion by showing how empty and
ridiculous a custom like taking off your hat in church actually is.
 When we reach the end of stanza 1, we discover that Larkin's poem follows a strict meter.
What might that be? Well, technically speaking it's in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme
scheme of ABABCADCD.

Line 10

Move forward, run my hand around the font.

 The first stanza flows seamlessly into the second, as the words "Move forward" actually
continue the thought begun in line 8. The speaker steps farther into the church and "run[s]
[his] hand around the font" as he goes (10). The "font" he's referring to here is the stone
basin that priests use to baptize people. He runs his hand over it, almost in a kind of caress.

Lines 11-12

From where I stand, the roof looks almost new—

Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.

 Glancing up, the speaker notes that the roof of the church looks almost new. He's not sure if
the thing has been cleaned or restored. These lines again demonstrate that the speaker (at
least at this moment) is more interested in the everyday details about the church's
construction than its spiritual significance.
 He realizes that someone knows why the inside of this church is so important, but he
doesn't.

Lines 13-15

Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few

Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.

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  Lines 13-15 show the speaker really making himself at home in the empty church. He walks
right up to the lectern and starts reading some of the passages from mass that are laid out
on it.
 The speaker decides to read the words "Here endeth" alone, and ends up speaking them
much more loudly than he meant to. By that token, this idea of ending rings loudly in the
church.

Lines 16-18

The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door

I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence.
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

 The speaker decides to go back to the door he came in through, and donates an "Irish
sixpence" into the collection box. Readers of Larkin's time would've known that an Irish
sixpence was, as a piece of currency, worthless in England. So, this is a very careless and jerky
thing to do. After all, would you go into a church and donate an expired coupon for
something
 In any case, Larkin closes the stanza by having his speaker reflect that "the place was not
worth stopping for" (18). At this point in the poem, the speaker has definitely taken a pretty
hard shot at religion, and has proclaimed that it's all pretty much worthless after visiting the
church.

Lines 19-20

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,

And always end much at a loss like this,

 After the speaker ends stanza 2 with a comment about the church's worthlessness, he opens
stanza 3 with a sudden reversal, insisting that no matter what he might think, he has to own
up to the fact that he did stop to look inside the church, and that he has also done this on
numerous occasions in the past. In other words, the speaker realizes that it's not good
enough for him to simply say that church is stupid, because whether he likes it or not, he
needs to account for why he keeps coming back to it.
 Further, he suggests that the outcome of these explorations is not a belief that the church is
meaningless, but only that he feels "much at a loss" (20) when he goes inside a church. He's
not coming to any great revelations. The question of the importance of the church is
something that he can't satisfactorily answer for himself.

Lines 21-23

Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,

When churches fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep

 He wonders further about what'll happen to churches when there are no religious people left
in the world. What will the buildings themselves become?

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Lines 24-25

A few cathedrals chronically on show,

Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,

 Will we turn them into museums to help us remember what primitive people used to
believe? The speaker here imagines churches as just buildings that display the artifacts of
religious belief.
 What kind of things might be on display? Well, there might be parchment (old-timey paper)
bearing religious writing, maybe a plate (upon which communion wafers would be served),
and a pyx (a decorative tin that holds the wafers).

Lines 26-27

And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.

Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

 Maybe we'll just open up all the old church doors and let nature have its way, as symbolized
by the "rain and sheep" of line 26.
 Finally, the speaker wonders if we'll avoid churches as unlucky places, meaning that even if
we're no longer religious, we might still be superstitious.

Lines 28-31

Or, after dark, will dubious women come

To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?

 The speaker wonders if churches will be thought of superstitiously in the future, the same
way we might think of getting bad luck from breaking a mirror. The speaker paints a vivid
picture of how people might act in this future world, with "dubious" (of a questionable, or
doubtful nature) women bringing their children to touch a certain part of the church just for
good luck.
 On this same note, the speaker wonders if people might come and "Pick simples for a
cancer," meaning that they might pick herbs growing out of the church in order to heal
someone. Treating the church this way represents the decay of all the specific morals and
meanings the church once stood for.
 The speaker muses humorously on the thought of zombies walking around the church, which
turns the church from something solemn and dignified into the setting for a monster movie.
Or perhaps he means to suggest that, on a given ("advised") night, ghosts might appear.

Lines 32-33

Power of some sort or other will go on

In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;

 Superstitious powers usually work "seemingly at random" (33), while the church is supposed
to do just the opposite, giving a sense of consistency, order, and permanence to the world. In
the future, though, religious order will give way to superstitious randomness. That, and
riddles.

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Lines 34-36

But superstition, like belief must die,

And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

 But eventually, Larkin's speaker suggests that even superstition will eventually have to die
away, too.
 The thing is, though, that once these people get their way and religion disappears, there'll be
nothing left for them to disbelieve. They'll disappear from the Earth, too.
 And what happens then? There'll be nothing of the church building left to contemplate
except "Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky" (36). In other words, the natural
world will be all that remains, without any higher sense of purpose (or even a sense of
doubt) for humans. It'll just be one big… nothing.

Lines 37-38

A shape less recognizable each week,

A purpose more obscure. I wonder who

Lines 39-44

Will be the last, the very last, to seek

This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?

 The speaker then wonders who will be "the very last" person to seek out the church "for
what it was," its traditional religious meaning.
 Will it be someone from a construction background who is interested in the architecture of
churches? (Only one of those folks, really, would likely know what a "rood-loft" is.)
 Or will it be someone whose interest is aroused by old junk? That's the best we can do with
"ruin-bibber." A "bibber" is actually a term for an alcoholic, so a "ruin-bibber" would be
somebody who's addicted to ruins. While that sounds healthier than alcoholism, we get the
sneaking suspicion that this is not a compliment here.
 The significance of lines 40 to 44 lies in the fact that these "religious" folks—the architects,
antique-ers, and sniffers—all have really superficial relationships to the church, and do not
actually appreciate the deep spiritual questions that the church tries to provide answers for.

Line 45

Or will he be my representative,

 The speaker wonders if the person who might visit a future-church might be just… like… him.

Line 46

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt

 The speaker now envisions himself as living in a world where the last of religious faith has
died away and the church has been deserted.

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  The speaker admits that future-him would be bored by the church, and would be generally
uninformed about what it's supposed to stand for.
 More than that, this left-behind dirt is "ghostly." With that description, the speaker plays on
the double meaning of the word ghost, which can mean either the presence of something
dead, or the living "Holy Ghost" that forms part of the Christian Trinity (along with God and
Jesus).

Lines 47-48
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt

 It's not just any old ground, either, but a "cross of ground." The speaker's rep. seems drawn
to the religious importance of the place on which he stands.
 So what's he doing there? What's so great about an old, forgotten chunk of dirt, anyway?
Well, we learn that "it held unspilt." Even though the soil is scattered now, it seems that
there was a time when this religious ground was bound together.

Lines 49-50

So long and equably what since is found

Only in separation—marriage, and birth,

 The speaker goes on to say that he looks after the ground because it (read: religion) has
managed to hold together certain things that, in the modern world, are only known by
separation. Marriage, for example, is an institution of the church, but in the increasingly
secular modern world, divorce rates are much higher than ever before.

Lines 51-54

And death, and thoughts of these—for which was built

This special shell? For, though I've no idea

What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,

It pleases me to stand in silence here;

 By calling the church a "barn," he once again shows that for him, the place is just a really big
building with no greater significance.
 Still, he seems happy to hang out there, not saying anything. After all his criticizing, he can't
escape the appeal that the church has for him.

Lines 55-57

A serious house on serious earth it is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.

 As the final stanza begins, the speaker suggests that the reason he keeps coming back to the
church is because it's so "serious." This seems to be a shift from the earlier vision of
 future churches as haunted houses. Superstition can hardly be taken seriously, after all.

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  Further, the church not only recognizes human desires, but makes them seem significant to
the entire universe by dressing them up or "robing" them "as destinies" (57). In this line, the
speaker is recognizing the serious work done by the church and religion—giving purpose and
structure to human experience.
 Still, he also portrays this work as really superficial, too. The church "robe[s]" these feelings
as destinies, which suggests that this is not truthfully what they are.

Lines 58-60
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,

 Still, the speaker recognizes that the church's power to make human life meaningful
will always be an important task. Even though he's wondering about what this church will
look like at when all the believers have gone, he acknowledges that the work of the church in
giving meaning to life never completely go away.
 Why is that? Because there will always be someone like speaker who will feel a "hunger in
himself to be more serious" (60). Come again? In other words, people won't always be happy
with just killing time, but there will always be someone out there who looks for a deeper,
more serious purpose to life. And the speaker recognizes that religion can provide that.

Lines 61-63

And gravitating with it to this ground,

Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

 The person will come to this place because he will find out what the church once stood for,
that it was a "proper place to grow wise in" (62). But is there anything more to this claim
than just hearsay? How do we know the church is a proper place to grow wise in?
 To answer that, the speaker says that the church grounds are meaningful because they're
surrounded by dead folks. Nice. Here, the speaker is referring to the fact that the grounds
surrounding churches are traditionally used as graveyards, meaning that a lot of dead bodies
hang out nearby. He's saying that, even if there's not literally a God out there, there is still
something to be said about this fact: for thousands of years, people have gone to their
graves in the presence of a church—in other words, believing in God and heaven.

Theme: Spirituality
Church Going" draws a pretty clear line between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is the part of the
speaker that keeps drawing him back into churches, even though he doesn't find anything in
organized religion. In this sense, spirituality refers to the basic human longing that leads people
toward religion. The poem describes this longing as a profound desire to be serious and to have a
serious meaning in your life. Otherwise, life is just a big joke. Not the funny kind either. More like an
old, dusty, knock-knock kind. For this reason, the speaker implies, spirituality will always exist even if
religion doesn't. Religion means knowing all of the customs and rules of a specific faith, while
spirituality, as the speaker shows us, can be vague and "uninformed" (46). According to Larkin,
religion provides hard answers to life's big questions, while spirituality is what keeps us asking these
questions. In this sense, you might say that Larkin doesn't necessarily endorse religion, but he
definitely finds something in the idea of spirituality.

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Background information to the novel/ atmosphere of the novel:
Post-war England.
After the war Europe was riddled with factories. Factories worked Piece rate, this is the old money
system. You got paid per piece. (page 31)
They made a movie about the novel in the 1960s. the movie is set in the rely bicycle factory.

+Welfare state: rebuild the state, we are a society and we should take care of each other. So people
who have more should pay more in order to help people who do not have money.

+NHS -> National Health Service : If you feel ill you do not have to pay.
Before the war, if you were not insured, they did not help you. (first to say ‘health service is free’)

+Pension for the elderly -> also a post-war thing. Before you either worked until you died or your
family had to take care of you.

+Unemployment benefits

All the above improved after the war. However, the taxes went up after the second world war in
order to pay all these things.

Because of the growth of the economy people could buy things they normally could not afford (
cigarettes, television, a car -> if they would put money aside for a year.

Page 26/27 -> shows the difference between pre-war and post-war. They had it a lot better after the
war. Before his father was ‘on the dole’
He's on the dole.” -> werkloosheidsuitkering

Description of the protagonist : Arthur

Honest: No, he lies to all these women. He creates his own morality. He does not care about others,
it is all about what he thinks.

Brave:

Melancholic:

Happy:

Grim:

Hedonistic:

Caring:

Cruel:

Loving: he cares for the children of Brenda (he is nice to kids).

Selfish:

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No woman is worth a divorce:

Doreen, type of person:

Cautious : does not accept Arthur easily.
Naïve: she wants to believe in everything Arthur says although she knows something is wrong.
Counterpart of Jack.
Forgiving: founds out he was with Brenda and Winnie, and still wants to marry him. She really wants
to marry because this is expected by her family/society.

Wants to believe Arthur and everything he says. Wants to know everything about him. She takes care
of her mother, cleans the house, visits Arthur when he feel under the weather.

Brenda:
Brenda is the type of person I would not like to be friends with. She cheats on her husband and
leaves her children alone while she is out drinking. No sense of responsibility. She even excepts
Arthur with her children. She has no sense of guilt. Ignorant/careless. They are both to blame for
their affair.

Partly care taking: she makes breakfast for Arthur. She makes lunch for jack.

Realistic of the prospects of living with Arthur: she says to Arthur she knows he loves her now, but is
aware of the fact he may not love her in a few months. She knows he will settle down/marry another
woman. So she knows they do not have a future together.

Not really in love with Arthur. More for fun and attention. She might misses to be loved by Jack so
see seeks that with Arthur. Arthur makes her life more fun, by going to pubs/the park etc.

Arthur sees himself as the saver of women with ‘slow’ husbands.

Jack:
He is in the background. He is not direct at all. He is naïve : warn Arthur for the swaddies. While he
figured out he had something going on with Brenda. Coward : he does not stick up for himself, he
does not confront Arthur with what he knows. He did not go after Arthur himself.
He works a lot in order to urn money for his family. Does not suspect anything, might have to do
with innocence.

The factory: he would not mind if a bomb is thrown on it.

Sticks up for his family : he protects his sister who is beaten up by her husband.
He does not care about society. He even wants to shoot all people who are involved with the union
(page132)

Has Arthur changed ?

Yes, after being beaten up he started to think about life. After all, he thought he was lucky to survive.
He is married to Doreen, while he never wanted to get married. (yes-> scene with fish) (no-> the
world will hear from me)

Good things about Arthur: he is very direct.

He sticks up for his family even if they did something wrong.
Hypocrite: He works with Jack but at the meantime he sleeps with his wife.
He says women ‘if only Jack died perhaps I could marry Brandon. But then again no, a women like
that would do it with anyone. She would cheat on him as well.

The author does not judge Arthur. Because everyone does good as well as bad things.

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Opening scene: in a way it is funny. It shows the protagonist is careless. He only cares about getting
laid, drunk and money.

The author start with the scene so you will start to judge Arthur. And you also get an awkward feeling
-> what the heck is happening here, he throws up on another person.

Arthur does things that are against morels of society -> he throws up one someone, he has sex with a
lot of women. So he is not seen as a Hero or Anti-Hero more of a Villain.

Scene’s in the book where Arthur did something nice but on the whole he was not a nice person:
When Brenda gets pregnant he tries to help her for his own good, at the end of the chapter he sleeps
with Brenda her sister.

A guy throws a brick through a window -> a funeral parlor. He want to get something
He feels sympathy for this guy

He steels a wallet and in there is nothing but a vacancy -> this implies that the man was workless,
looking for work.

The 50s preceded the 60s-> the pattern continued. People reacted against the rules. They wanted to
think for themselves. Against authority. People wanted to do whatever they want, and Arthur did it.

‘I do not care what you think, I will do what I want’

The Angry young men: a group of writers who were against society.

Prevailing mood: rebellious

Why is there a Saturday night and a Sunday morning part:

Getting beaten up is the last part of Saturday night. This is the moment he changes, this makes him
confess to Dorien he cheated on her. Saturday is the night where everything is fun, going to a pub
etc. and Sunday morning people start to think about what they did the night before. When he was
beaten up and survived he started to think about everything. Saturday is the party part and Sunday is
the relax/thinking about the future part.

There is no feeling of religion through the novel.

End scene:
The fish remembered Arthur of himself. He was caught once (with cheating) but he will not get
caught twice -> then it’s curtains.

It’s a good life in a good world, if you do not weaken -> he still has the desire to do what he did
before. He still has a plan…. The temptation is still there, but if he will do it again is the question.

Motifs: recurring element : Pubs, Sex, Cigarettes, Work, Cheating on Jack, don’t weaken-> don’t let
them get you ->get them first,

Arthur his ideals: Getting money, getting laid, getting drunk , not getting caught.

Army symbolized everything Arthur hates about it.

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 Randall Jarell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

From protected (my mother’s sleep) he fell into the hands of ‘The State’. From cosy and protected
into the hands of the ‘protection’ of the state/ the army (maybe air force).
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
The belly of the state. It is very cold in there sometimes even -30. The fur refers to the bomber
jacket. ( connection: baby in its mothers belly. If an animal is born their fur is wet and when they get
out and it is cold they might freeze).

Basic idea: from protection to protection (however, the second protection is not really protection
because in the belly of the second protection (the state) and in it the wet fur (of his bomber jacket)
froze because it was so cold in the ball turret. (the state is supposed to protect him, but they do not.
They leave him in there until his wet fur freezes).

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

dream of life: de dream of living. While he was up in the air he was loosed from the ground and
therefore his dream of life. He is separated from his dream of life since the moment he left the
ground. (six miles away from earth and his dream of life).

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

from his mother’s sleep he woke because of the ‘black flak’ (air defence, ‘anti-air guns’) and
nightmare fighters. He is sleeping in the ball turret and woke up to…..
The nightmare fighters are the enemy, might be Nazi Germany because they fought against them in
WW2

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

The state did not care about him. When he died they just washed him out and probably replaced
him.

1) What do you think “mother’s sleep” might mean? (line 1)

Protection from his mother. (Evidence: move away from mother to the state (home to the army)
mother’s sleep is associated with safety/protection)
2) What is meant by “its belly”? (line 2), to whom does ‘its’ refer?
The belly of the state. (Evidence: the only thing it can refer to)
3) Why is the narrator ‘loosed from the dream of life’ (line 3)
Because he is six miles from earth, his dream of life (dream of living) stayed on earth while his is
miles away. Loosed from the dream of life means you are already half death.
4) Explain the last line.
If they hit you, you were probably in 3 or 4 pieces. So if they want to take you out they washed you
out because that was the only way it was done.

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 Summary per stanza

The action in this poem is pretty straightforward. A soldier goes into battle in the ball turret of a
WWII bomber. (Technical note: a ball turret is a rotating ball with mounted machine guns located
underneath the aircraft. The gunner sits inside the ball). He is killed. The poem is written in the voice
of the dead pilot.

Lines 1-2

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

 The title—"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"—sets us up for a poem about war and
death.
 If we strip away all the figurative language from lines 1 and 2, here's what's happening in the
most basic sense: the gunner finds himself in his ball turret underneath the bomber. It is so
cold at altitude that the sweat-soaked, fleece lining of his flight jacket has frozen.
 In the context of the poem, "mother" functions as a metaphor, representing: the woman that
brought the speaker into the world. In short, "mother" is the life giver.
 The poem begins with the "mother's sleep" and "from" this sleep, the speaker falls.
 There is almost a sense of childlike innocence in the first half of the line, the sense of a child
and a mother together.
 It could be that the mother is sleeping and dreaming of her son. But the sonfalls from this
dream (a mother's dream of a son's life) into the reality of "the State." Childhood over.
 Line 1 gives us this key information: when, "mother" (the creator, the life giver, the nurturer)
is asleep (unconscious, unaware) the speaker falls. Falling into something makes it sound
unintentional, not wanted.
 And where does the speaker end up? The speaker tells us that he "fell into the State."
 So, the speaker fell from childlike innocence into the knowledge of violence and war. See
what happens when mom turns her back for just a second?
 There is another metaphor at work here. What comes to mind when you picture this gunner,
"hunched in [the] belly" of the bomber? it brings to mind a child in the womb. That would
make the bomber the mother. So, the ball turret becomes a metaphor for the womb. But
unlike a mother's womb, which is warm and nurturing, the womb of "the State" is freezing—
a harsh, cold environment that doesn't seem very life-sustaining.
 We also have some animal imagery going on. The description of "wet fur" brings to mind
animals out in the elements, or, in sticking with the birth imagery that has been building in
the poem, new born animals with fur still wet from the birth itself.

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Lines 3-4

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

 The bomber is flying at a very high altitude and the speaker's life before war (even life itself),
left far below, feels like an illusion. Like a "dream," it slips away.
 "Six miles from earth" places us kind of between earth and the heavens. This mirrors the in-
between state of our speaker—asleep or awake, alive or dead?
 The speaker wakes to a new reality—his "nightmare" existence in the ball turret, enemy
fighters attacking.
 Usually, in life it is hard to contemplate death. It seems far off and mysterious—we can only
imagine it in a dream-like way. In lines 3 and 4, this is reversed: life is the dream and reality is
death—the "black flak and the nightmare fighters."
 Reading line 3, we picture earth from a great distance looking peaceful and serene. We
probably see blue sky and white clouds.
 In line 4, the blue sky we may have imagined in line 3 is filled with "black flak."
 And that word "nightmare" never seems to bring up good feelings.

Line 5

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

 The gunner's remains are cleaned out of the turret with a steam hose.
 Let's take another look at this line (as unpleasant as that may be) and think about the poem's
birth imagery and the metaphorical aspects of the turret.
 Remember the way the gunner "hunched" in the turret like a fetus in the womb? Well, if we
carry that reading through to this last line, we have the gunner being reborn from the
turret/womb. But instead of being born into life as a child from a mother, the gunner is born
into death from the womb of "the State."
 A figurative reading of the poem's final line also suggests an abortion—the washing out of
the fetus from the womb. Like an aborted fetus, the gunner's life (and the lives of all young
men and woman lost to the war machine of nations) doesn't reach a full, completed state.
 And unlike the dignfied, heroic deaths we are often told about when it comes to war, this
poor gunner is disposed in the same way one might clean a car or a garbage can. There's
nothing noble or heroic about it.

If you have a poem that deals with war, death is probably going to make an appearance. The theme
of death is definitely at work in "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," as the title would clearly
indicate. Jarrell wants us to consider life and death (mostly death) in this poem and he uses some
contrasting imagery (birth/death) to encourage us to contemplate these big ideas. And just to make
sure we consider mortality, Jarrell chose to make the poem's speaker a dead soldier.

Analysis: WWII – 1939-1945

Freedom in America:
They do not want to pay for other people’s health insurance or for the unemployed. The government
is only there to protect us from the outside (so they are willing to pay for army).

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1920s – role of women
The roaring 20s -> people getting richer. Prohibition :

1. What picture do we have of Jay Gatsby by the end of chapter 3 ?

He is mysterious. He is rich and good looking, throws parties, he is a good host. He separates himself
from the party, he does not drink, does not dance, does not enjoy himself at his party.
He was in war. Everyone knows his name but they do not know what kind of person he is.
A lot of gossip about him (Gossip: he killed a man.)
During parties, he looks at the other side of the bay, looking for something.

What do we know about him, what don’t we know about him?

We do not know about his history

2. Describe Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Do you think the marriage stands a chance of surviving at
this point in the book?
No, Tom is cheating on her. Daisy is in love with Jay. Daisy her relationship with her daughter : she
has a maid, they do not spend time together. The name of her daughter is not even mentioned.

Tom interrupts Daisy all the time. He is dominant and only interested in himself.
He does not want Murtel (mrs Wilson) says Daisy her name. he slaps her when she does say it (page
39). Tom sees her as a mistress only, so she does not have any right to call her name and get into his
private life.

Tom is a racist and think he is a king (superior race) ‘example: his mistress is not allowed to talk
about his private life, he feels better than other races’. When nick is eating with them they talk about
a book and he says ‘black people should not take over the world.

3. The narrator Nick Carraway introduces himself in the first few pages before he starts his story.
What does he think about Gatsby? How does he look back on the whole story?

New York was a big mess. He moved back to the mid-west because he was not happy with the eased.

Jay Gatsby was the only good thing in New York.

4. What role does the narrator play in the plot/action?

He observes everything, by doing nothing he does something (when Tom hits his mistress he does
not interfere, so he accepts it.)

Women had more freedom.

Tom cheats on Daisy. Daisy is pregnant -> she hopes it would be a beautiful little fool. So she will not
notice things like a cheating husband.
Omniscient narrator: creeps into the characters minds (knows what they are thinking)

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1. What picture do we have of Jay Gatsby by the end of the book? Do you like him?

Give arguments in favour and against Gatsby.

2. Describe Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Why do you think they are still together at the end of the
book?

3. Does Nick Carraway ,the narrator, play in a part the plot/action, or is he just an observer?

4. Why is the book typically American, what is the role of The American Dream in the book?

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Travel, trouble, music, art,
A kiss, a frock, a rhyme—
I never said they feed my heart,
But still they pass my time.

From Enough Rope | Written c. 1925

She starts of happy with nice things but ‘they do not feed her heart’. She misses something… which
might be love or a passion. Although these things do not feed her heart, but she passes her time with
doing it. She fills up her time by all those things but they do not make her happy. We find a part of
the answer in the title. ‘faute de mieux’ means ‘the want of something better’. However she does
not said what that something better is.

If I had a shiny gun,

I could have a world of fun
Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folk who give me pains;

Or had I some poison gas,

I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.

But I have no lethal weapon—

Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell.

From Sunset Gun | Written c. 1928

She does not use a gun, but she uses language/words. Words can be mightier than weapons. She kills
them physiologically.

Tone: frustrated but with a funny twist to it.

Has an evil twist to it because she says she could have a hell of fun if she has a gun and could kill
people. But it is more a figure of speaking because she probably would not do it because she says it
in a funny way.

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Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)

From Death and Taxes | Written c. 1931

Live like it is your last day. They say it every day but they do not really die.

Might have a dark tone to it: ‘but, alas, we never do’ can refer to die or live like
‘drink/dance/laugh/lie/love’

1) How would you describe the tone of these poems? Are they similar

Cynical: it is not that special.

In each poem he/she uses something positive as well as negative.

2) What is meant by the phrase “I never said they feed my heart” in the poem

The things she mentioned are filling her time but not her heart. She misses something that fill her
heart.

Faute de Mieux ( French for: for want of better)

xx

3) If you assume that ‘Frustration ‘ reflects Dorothy Parker’s own emotions, why is this poem
considered ‘unorthodox’.

You can consider it evil. Because you cannot say you want to kill people.

4) Comment on the phrase ‘for tomorrow we shall die!’ in ‘The Flaw in Paganism’.

xxx

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Background information to the poems:
A lot of countries had a partnership, so if one country invaded another, there were other
countries who would ‘help’ one of them.

Brittan wanted to defend Belgium, because if other big countries would invade Belgium they
would have become bigger and more powerful. Britain wanted to stay the biggest and most
powerful empire. If the French would take over they would be less strong.

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 by Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; -> refers to the burial
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. -> tears in their eyes
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. -> refers to the curtains that close at a funeral
September-October, 1917

First part is on the battlefield. Second part is at home. At home they are ‘burrying’ the soldiers.
However, their body is at the battlefield so it is imaginary. Therefore, the candles are not there, there
are tears. There are no flowers but sweet thoughts about the soldiers.
In the first part the death of a soldier is described. They refer to a ‘normal’ death with the death the
soldiers have to deal with.(funeral)
Last line-> it goes slowly, this makes it more powerful. ‘each slow dusk’ refers to how many die on one
day. Not just one soldier, but loads of them each and every day.
Barbaric imitation of a funeral.

Notes for students

1. anthem - perhaps best known in the expression "The National Anthem;" also, an important religious
song (often expressing joy); here, perhaps, a solemn song of celebration
2. passing-bells - a bell tolled after someone's death to announce the death to the world
3. patter out – to speak rapidly; here, imitating the sound of machine-gun fire
4. orisons - prayers; here, funeral prayers
5. mockeries – ceremonies, which seem like absurd insults here. Owen seems to be suggesting that
the Christian religion, with its loving God, can have nothing to do with the deaths of so many
thousands of men, and is indeed impotent to help them.

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6. demented - raving mad
7. bugles - a bugle is played at military funerals (sounding the Last Post)
8. shires - English counties and countryside from which so many of the soldiers came
9. candles - church candles, or the candles lit in the room where a body lies in a coffin
10. pallor - paleness
11. dusk – the end of the day, here symbolizing death
12. drawing-down of blinds - normally a preparation for night; here, the tradition of drawing the blinds
in a room where a dead person lies, as a sign to the world and as a mark of respect. The coming of
night, or death, is like the drawing-down of blinds.

Comprehension questions on ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’

1. What is the setting rite in the first two quatrains ?
2. What ritual is referred to in the first two quatrains?
3. What picture do you have of the soldiers, what are they compared to?
4. What is the setting in the sextet (the last 6 lines)?

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by Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

"Good-morning; good-morning!" the General said

When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ‘em dead,
And we‘re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
"He‘s a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
***
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
(they, Harry and Jack, died because of his plan (of attack)
He did for them both means he killed them both.

Tone: sarcastic/bitter. Like nothing is wrong with people dying. Being cheerful about thing
that are not cheerful at all.

Comprehension Questions on ‘The General’

1. What does the poem tell you about the poet’s attitude towards those in command ?
Disrespectful – textual proof: And we‘re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
They send soldiers to their death.
2. What does the line ‘ "He‘s a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack ‘ tell you about
the soldiers?
3. How would you describe the tone of the poem?

27
by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

If I should die there is some corner of a foreign field ( die in a battlefield in another country) he would
die in a corner, the dust refers to the remains of his body. The reason he says the dust is richer
indicates some superiority feeling -> he finds his remains more important/richer than the ground of
the country. The dust is superior because he feels like he is more important than the others ‘the
thoughts by England given’ ( the thoughts/ ideas of the English: her sights and sounds……until…..
English heaven.)

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the Eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; (somewhere-> heaven/spiritual world)
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. (‘English heaven-> place of peace and gentleness’)
He think he is such a good/gentle person because he is English and he has English dreams, etc.
First is more about the English country
Second is more about the English thoughts
The idea is that he is dead now, only his ideas are still there.

The poem is a sonnet: a sonnet consist of 14 lines -> 8 and 6 -> normally (the mood) changes in the
second part
Rhyme scheme: A+B +A +B + C+D+C+D + E+F+G

28
Von Slevenplan to overtake France. The plan to overtake France quickly, the plan was to go through
Belgium. The plan did not work for plenty of reasons.
The France soldiers could get there very quickly because taxi drivers helped all the soldiers to get to
the place where the German soldiers were gathered.

What is de shift between the first and second stanza?

1. What is the tone of the poem?
Patriotic = they are gentle and good and the Germans are the barbarians. The Germans
have to learn how to be like the English -> ‘learnt of friends; and gentleness’
2. How does the tone compare to the tone of ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’?
3. What is the difference between the burial in ‘The Soldier’ and the burial in ‘Anthem for
Doomed Youth’?

** Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon met in hospital because they both had cell shock. Sassoon
was a war hero and gave tips to Wilfred.

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