Now youve said it The hopeless emptiness Hell

“Now you’ve said it. The hopeless emptiness. Hell, plenty of people are on to the emptiness part; out where I used to work, on the Coast, that’s all we ever talked about. We’d sit around talking about emptiness all night. Nobody ever said ‘hopeless’ though; that’s where we’d chicken out. Because maybe it does take a whole hell of a lot more to see the hopelessness. And I guess when you do see the hopelessness, that’s when there’s nothing to do but take off. If you can. ” What is this about? What sort of text might it be from? Know key info about the course Understand what context means Be able to plan and begin research into context

Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day Can you think of any books, films or TV programmes that deal with the following themes: Identity Hopelessness Conflict Love Separation Insecurity Isolation Know key info about the course Understand what context means Be able to plan and begin research into context

Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day Written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes 40% of A-level Study of three texts: one prose (The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood), one poetry (Feminine Gospels by Carol Ann Duffy), and one drama (A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams) Questions Section A: Set texts. One essay question on set text (25 marks) Handmaid’s Section B: Contextual linking • one compulsory question on an unseen extract (25 marks) • one essay question linking two texts (25 marks) Streetcar Students will study three texts: one prose, one poetry and one drama text, at least one of which must be written post-2000. They will also respond to an unseen prose extract in the exam. The paper for this component is open book. Students may take a copy of their set texts into the exam. These texts must not be annotated and must not contain any additional notes or materials. Know key info about the course Tale and Duffy Understand what context means Be able to plan and begin research into context

“Now you’ve said it. The hopeless emptiness. Hell, plenty of people are on to the emptiness part; out where I used to work, on the Coast, that’s all we ever talked about. We’d sit around talking about emptiness all night. Nobody ever said ‘hopeless’ though; that’s where we’d chicken out. Because maybe it does take a whole hell of a lot more to see the hopelessness. And I guess when you do see the hopelessness, that’s when there’s nothing to do but take off. If you can. ” Richard Yate’s first novel, Revolutionary Road, is indeed about that hopelessness. The novel concerns itself with the exploration of the prison we find ourselves in, the jail which society and culture demands of us to be confined in. The Sisyphus-like demeanor men and women succumb to be in once they become adults, once marriage happens, once they bear children, and the dozens of escape one can pursue and the hundred more circumstances that could happen to make individuals fall back into that stupor. It is a pale view of humanity, given that we pride ourselves on our ability to choose the paths that we forge, given that we think so highly of our freedom and intelligence. In the end we see that hopelessness, that futility, that petrifying notion, all around us, lurking in our every action, in our thoughts, stuck on the vandalized and sticky seats of the bus, the cold pole of the train, the computer monitors that we stare at as we type away the hours of the day, the business and corporate jargons that we drop during meetings, and embedded in the smile on our faces every time the fifteenth and the thirtieth of the month comes and we collect our salaries. It is a truth of the contemporary times, and it is a devastating fact that we have to live with, constantly. Know key info about the course Understand what context means Be able to plan and begin research into context

Now read the extracts from The Handmaid’s Tale and The Catcher in the Rye. Fully annotate them, with a particular focus on how the writer conveys a sense of hopelessness. Know key info about the course Understand what context means Be able to plan and begin research into context