IF ONLY IN MY

DREAMS
MARCUS sEDGWICK
 GENERAL QUESTIONS
1- Which are the characters of this short story? What are their
nationalitites?
2- Why do you think the autor decided to make his characters part
of three different religions?
3- What is the setting of the story?
4- What event took place at the beginning of the story?
5- What happened to Grey after that?
6- What is Cupola?

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 GENERAL QUESTIONS
7- “Each window had a view… some of the Earth, yes, but some
of… What does the writer mean?
8- What were they celebrating the following day?
9- How do they celebrate it?
10- What is “A visit from St. Nicholas”?
11- Why does Amira choose that tale to tell?
12- What was Grey worried about?
13- What do they realise after listening to the retelling of the
dream?
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LITERARY
ELEMENTS
PERSONIFICAT
ION

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PERSONIFICATION

Personification is a form of figurative

language in which something that is not
human is given human characteristics.
This device is often used in poetry to
enhance the meaning and beauty of
poems.
EXAMPLES
- “It was the black (…) it was the
black that was to blame” (1)

- “the blackness pawing at his back

the whole time” (1)

- “A new and uncaring sun” (1)

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 “
Find an instance of
personification on page 2

“All the time, the black kept pawing

and clawing at his back”
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 “
Find an instance of
personification on page 3

“… or he’d be able to see the

blackness, all the time, and it would be
able to see him”
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 intertextuality
And you have snow at Christmas, don’t you, in
England?
Grey smiled, but it was not a happy smile.
- We used to, he said. When I was a boy. But they
decided to do away with it.
- Who did? Asked Amira, not understanding.
- I don’t know, said Grey. Whoever decides these
things. Whoever it was that screwed our climate
up
- Page 5. 9
 DREAM
“It turned black, he said. First the land, and you
could see mountains collapsing, and then when they
collapsed, the oceans started to turn black. The
blackness seeped into the oceans like they were
stagnating and thickening and then finally the whole
Earth started to tremble and shake, somehow, and
then it imploded. It just imploded, sucked into itself,
and all that was left behind was a quivering hole in
space.”

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 reflection
How can you relate the story with the title
of the book “I’ll be home for Christmas”?

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