Spot Checks ..

Spot Check p. 266:

a) What are the three main genres of literature?
 Fiction, Drama and Poetry

 b) Are fictional stories always untrue?
Most fiction consist of made-up stories, but the relationship between fiction and factual reality is often a complicated one, and the fact that a story is partly true does not disqualify it from belonging to the fiction genre.

c) What are the differences in the way fiction and drama relate to stories?
In fiction you write the story, but in drama you show the story.

d) What is meant by "prose"?
Prose writing is writing that follows the patterns of ordinary speech, without regular rhythm or rhyme.

e) What is meant by "free verse"?
"Free verse" is poetry lacking regular metre or rhyme.

f) How does literature differ from a user manual?
Literature can be fun, witty, entertaining, personal, philosophical etc. When you write   a user manual, you have to be as clear as possible, so a manual that is open to interpretation is useless. That is why most manuals are usually very boring.

g) How is interpreting literature different from interpreting real life?
To interpret literature we have to use our knowledge of the world and human nature.

Spot Check p. 281:

 a) What are the four main types of point of view?
Third-person objective point of view, third-person limited point of view, third-person omniscient point of view and first-person point of view.

b) Explain in your own words the difference between the third-person limited and the third-person omniscient point of view: In the limited point of view you only get to know one person, and in the omniscient point of view you get to know many characters.

c) What is meant by a "reliable" narrator?
A "reliable" narrator is often the third-person point of view, and specially the omniscient point of view, and then you have access to a lot of thoughts and opinions.

Spot Check p. 296:

a) What is the difference between direct and indirect characterisation?
Direct characterisation is when the author tells us diretly what the character is like. For example: "Charlie Richardson was a boy of 17 with a face full of freckles.  Indirect characterisation is when the author shows what traits characters have through the way they act and through the things they say. For example: "No problem at all," cried Charlie, drawing back a mop of ginger hair from his freckled face.

b) What is required for a character to be experienced as "round"?
A round character is closer to the complexity of real life than a flat character. ¨

c) Why is a "flat" character usually also static?
A flat character is usually also static because they rarely change. They do not have the ability to change.

d) Why can only a dynamic character experience an epiphany?
A flat, dynamic character can not change or develop, and when you experience and epiphany you realise life has to change.

Spot Check p.288:

a) Where is Jerome at the beginning of the story, and how old is he then?
He was nine years old and he was at school.

b) Describe the school he attends:
His school is a rather expensive preporatory school.

c) Why does he not live at home?
His father travels a lot because of his job.

d) What kind of pictures does Jerome have of his father?
He has different postcards with pictures of his father around the world.

e) What difficulties does the housemaster have when telling Jerome what has happened to his father?
He has difficulties not to laugh when he tells what has happened.

f) What is told in the story about the father? For example, his professions, Jerome's attitude to him etc: It says that he travelled a lot and that Jerome did not know what he did, and that he worshiped his father.

g) What happens when Jerome tells his best friend in public school about the accident?
Jerome realizes how the stories affect others, because his friend probably started laughing (even though it does not say so in the text).

h) Why does Jerome not want to talk to his fiancè about his fathers death?
He is afraid that she will laugh like the others.