AO2: First Time I met George: Q1: How does the writer describe the thoughts and feelings of the narrator? You should support your answer with close reference to the passage, including brief quotations. By Afnan Kadir

Ans: This short story is part of a novel “Meeting in Milk Market” by John Wickham. The title tells us that the story is about some people or children meeting together.  It is a narrative. The tone of the text is informal and the intended audience are children who are interested in reading short stories. The story is about two friends and how they met the first time. At first George, one of the friends was directly put into second standard which angered his future friend, the narrator. However, the next day, he was put into the same standard and was seated with his future friend and after that they became friends.

The theme is first impressions which means what impressions you have when you meet someone for the first time in your life. An example is “….made me angry…” . The impressions always vary and depend on the people meeting each other.

The writer also uses various techniques to describe the thoughts and feelings of the narrator. First of all, the title of the passage is very descriptive “The First Time I Met George” and tells us a great deal of what is written in the passage. Then, the writer uses statistics such as “Thirty-Five years ago” which makes the text more authentive, authoritative and makes the reader understand more.

Then the writer has also made use of lots of punctuation such as commas which makes the text very interesting. For example “….,I must,….”.

The writer also use hyperbole such as: “monstrous piece of favouritism” which makes the text very interesting and attractive.

Various types of sentences are also used which again makes the text very interesting and makes a huge impact on the reader. An example is: “This seemed a monstrous piece of favouritism.”

Lastly, parenthesis is used such as “…I must…” which makes the reader want to read more.

Concluding, I would say that the writer has achieved his purpose by using several techniques.

 

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AO2: “The first time I met George” by Shehryar Khan

The passage— title “The first time I met George”— is a story which is written by John Wickham. This tale describes the first time he met a boy in elementary school, who became his friend. The audience for this story include book-readers and story readers.

The tone if the passage can be described to change throughout the passage. In the beginning, the writer seemed calm but got angry in the middle. The writer portrays his friendship with George in the words, “Hr was easy with me and I was easy with him”. These words describe his friendship to the reader

The purpose of the text is to entertain the audience. To do so. The writer uses complex vocabulary, “ordeal” and “monstrous”, and several instances of figures if speech such as alliteration, “shared sugar”, exaggeration, “…monstrous piece of favoritism” and idiom, “behind my back” to describe to the reader of his day and create a vivid image of the situation in the readers mind.

The theme of the passage is first impressions. Over the passage, there are many instances, such as “(in all my school days I never had a whole pencil” or “… there was envy in me of his fortune in having a father’s hand to clutch” which shows the character’s life. These examples tell the reader that the writer was humble and had no father. This involves a. Sense if pity in the readers mind.

I believe that the passage is well built, with equal sized paragraphs, varying and complex punctuation and strong story structure which makes this a great read for the readers.

Topic: First Impressions Activity: Literary Analysis Q 1) by Muazzam Tahir

This passage is short story from “Meeting in Milkmarket” written by John Wickham. The title of this story is “The first time I met George”. The title itself is very descriptive in its way as it highlights the theme of the story in one statement, which is “First Impressions”. The passage is about how the author meets and befriends George, and his first impression of him.

The purpose of this passage is Conative or to entertain/delight as it is a story. For example, “I think now that there was also in me a little envy of his fortune in having a fathers hand to clutch”. It is Conative because the reader is being affected, delighted and entertained by this short story. The purpose intends to deliver it to the right audience.

The audience of this passage is primarily Children. It may also be Special Interest Groups as those interested in John Wickham’s’ Novels, would also want to read it. The audience Is determined keeping in mind the theme of the passage, in which Children may only be interested in.

The tone of this passage is very frank and informal. For example, “I am not perhaps claiming too much.” This shows how frankly the writer was expressing the statements and feelings, that is the attitude of the writer, and how informal a tone the writer has adapted. Due to the fact that the tone is chatty, the reader will feel familiar and shall find the passage accessible.

The writer has also developed a narrative style as he is narrating a story, which is about his first impression of George and how they became friends. For example, “I remember very clearly the morning that George came to school for the first time.” This narrates the moment he first saw him. This narrative style helps develop an impression of sequence of events that is in a non-chronological manner, in the readers’ minds.

The vocabulary in the passage varies from simple, colloquial to strong. For example, “clutch”, “angry” and “monstrous”. This shows how simple and strong words were used which helped the readers understand the words and emotions/feelings easily.

There also is a variety of sentence structures that vary from simple to compound-complex. For example, “the headmaster greeted George’s father warmly, and it was clear that they were friends and that George would be one of those boys who would get special treatment, being the son of the heads friend.” This helps to maintain a smooth flow for the reader.

Proper Paragraphing is also done to separate different ideas and perspectives. This will allow a smooth flow for the reader.

I believe that with proper structuring, linguistic features, style, tone, attitude and many other techniques, the writer has successfully delivered the purpose to the desired audience.

 

AO2: First Time I met George

The title of this passage is the ‘first time I met George’ written by John Wickham from ‘Meeting in Milkmarket’. The extract is a narrative story written in first person. The narrator is not named in the passage and he describes the first time he met a boy who became his friend at school. The title ‘ The first time I met George’ gives us a clear idea of the extract. The theme of the passage is injustice and friendship. In the beginning of the story the narrator is envious of George. Line16: ” also in me a little envy of his fortune”. The author subjectly influences the reader by intentionally only presenting one side of the argument, which has an effect on the reader. For example line22: ” This seemed a monstrous piece of favoritism”

The purpose of the passage is to entertain as the writer expresses their feelings and experiences. The audience of the passage is a general audience- adults and young adults- anyone who can understand how the context changes from envy to friendship. The attitude of the reader after reading the context will not be amused as to why they ended up as friends as there was no element of surprise throughout the text.

There is a small hint of vernacular vocabulary as some sentences are not structured properly. Line27: ” They put him to sit next to me”. The writer uses standard punctuation like colons and brackets like in line 30:” (in all my school days I never had a whole pencil)” adding emphasis to certain points. The choice of vocabulary was overall simple and that made the passage approachable to wide range of audiences. There was no trace of dialogue in the passage.

Important terms like ‘friends’ and ‘friendship’ are repeated which highlights the theme of friendship. In the end of the story the writer performs a favor to George which leads to their friendship and the writer seemed to be very pleased with himself. Line 33:” I have done nothing in my like since which had pleased me more”.

I believe the writer achieves his purpose to entertain the audience. The writer uses emotive language describing his first impressions of George which appeals to the readers, and invariably appeals to relate to our values and attitudes reminding readers of their first impressions.

AO3: First Impressions by Misha Ahmad

The title of the first passage is ‘The first time I met George’ from meeting in Milkmarket by John Wickham. As you can see the title is very descriptive, thus describing the main storyline that stretches throughout the passage. The passage is written in first form ( the narrator remains un-named). The writer describes the first time he met George at school and his feelings towards him and then after when they end up as friends.

The title of the second passage is ‘First day at school in Barbados’ from Growing up stupid under the Union Jack by Austin Clarke.The author was brought up in Barbados in the Caribbean when it was under British colonial rule. The passage is about the writers singular journey to a great uncertain world for the first time, referring to school. Line21: ” on my way to a new but uncertain world.”

Both passages have a common theme which is ‘first impressions’. As you can clearly see from their titles. Passage 1:”First time I met George”. Passage 2:”First day at school in Barbados”. The intended audience of both passages is a generalized approach to adults and young adults. The purpose of both passages is to entertain as they are both a mixture of descriptive and narrative writing. In  the first passage the writer moreover describes his first experience and ideas with a new friend, while in the second passage the author explains his feelings.

I believe in the first passage the writer uses a slight judgmental tone as he passes judgments on George on his first day for example line16: “George would be one of those boys who would get special treatment”. In the second passage the writer uses an optimistic and sentimental tone whilst describing his emotions like in line9: ” poor and ambitious mother”.

In the first passage the writer uses figurative language to describe his ideas for example in line22:” This seemed a monstrous piece of favoritism”. This is a hyperbole and metaphor which had an effect on the reader as a point is dramatically reinforced to arouse the feelings of the readers. A hint of vernacular vocabulary is used, line26: ” They put him to sit next to me” engaging the reader to the content.

In the second paragraph, the writer uses simple sentence structures which has an effect on the readers for example line5:” And nobody told me so far”. Also vernacular vocabulary and dialogues are used in the passage emphasizing points. For example line 11: ” Go long,boy, and learn! Learning going to make you into a man”. Line33:” You is a Combermere boy now!” The language also gives us an idea of the status of the black community back in 1944 in the Caribbean. The writer also grasps the effective use of imagery while he imagines the hypothetical future. Line43:” ride about on a horse in the sun, under a khaki helmet, dressed in a khaki suit, to drive some of my less fortunate friends and neighbors to work in the fields”. This adds color to the article and engages the reader.

In the first paragraph, after the forceful assertion of subjectly influencing the reader, by appropriate language and only presenting the writers own side of the story of the favoritism of George, the writer also makes the readers sympathize George, line 27;” he was crying from public shame”. The writer then lends George a lead pencil and teaches him how to use it. In the end of writer is effective in achieving his purpose of first experiences with a new boy, and how they ended up as friends.

In the second paragraph, whilst using effective description such as similies, line17: ” white as snow and ironed like glass” the writer is successful in evoking strong emotional response and in expressing how big of a deal it was for him to go to school and for his mother. Line6: ” that was a day of personal rejoicing for my mother”.

Both authors come effective in achieving their purpose in the end by using different linguistic techniques and presentational devices.

First Impressions:Explain how the writer presents his experience of going to school for the first time. You should support your answer with close reference to the passage, including brief quotations. By Zoraiz Syed

 

This passage is an autobiography from “Growing up stupid under the Union Jack” written by ‘Austin Clarke.’ In this passage the author describes his first day of going to school from a ‘low class’ life. The theme of this passage is first impressions.

Since this is an autobiography, the audience for this passage is adults. The purpose of this passage is to show the reader how it is like going to school when you are coming from a humble family. This purpose is achieved through the various linguistic techniques used by the author.

The author uses many figures of speech to add emphasis and interest. For example; “wildest dreams” is an idiom, “fortunate friends” is alliteration, “white as snow and ironed like glass” are idioms and more. The writer has used vernacular vocabulary as this is a story from a particular culture and to further engage the reader.

There is also a variety of punctuation used which can be seen from the following example: “There was the shining, gold-painted set of compasses; the Rankin biscuit tin, scrubbed clean and looking like a small silver coffin, with a flying fish sandwich in it: and my bottle of ‘clear’ lemonade.” This example also shows the complexity of the sentence structure, which is suitable for adults. The paragraphing is also formal.

The tone for this passage is conversational as the writer describes his feelings to the audience. Overall, the intended effect of this passage is to show the audience how the writer experienced his first day and this is achieved through the language techniques used by the writer.

First Impressions: How does the writer describe the thoughts and feelings of the narrator? You should support your answer with close reference to the passage, including brief quotations. By Zoraiz Syed

This passage is taken from a short story, “Meeting in the Milk market” by ‘John Wickham’. This is a narrative story which tells us about how the author met a boy named ‘George’ and came to be his friend. The theme is first impressions.

The purpose of this passage is to entertain the audience. The writer uses different linguistic techniques, such as punctuation, vocabulary, figures of speech and more, to enage the reader and makes him interested in the story. The audience for this passage is young adults.

The writer has used different forms of punctuation to make the passage more interesting. Examples of this are; “friends”, “that made me angry, I remember”, “(in all my school days I never had a whole pencil)” and such. The vocabulary used in this passage is simple so that the audience can easily understand it.

There is various sentence structure for example there are short sentences as well as long sentences for example, “he was crying from public shame”. The paragraph structure is also formal as they are all almost of the same size. The intended effect for this is to keep the reader engaged and make him read on.

The tone for this passage is conversational as the author is narrating a story to the audience. The most effective way the author describes his feelings is by using emotive language. He puts his thoughts to the paper. This is shown from the following example: “I think now that there was also in me a little envy of his fortune in having a fathers hand to clutch.”

Overall, the intended effect of this passage is to make the audience feel what the writer is experiencing and this is achieved through the various language techniques used.

 

 

 

First Impressions: Compare how the writers of text one and two convey their ideas and experiences. By Raphael Kahlid

A3. Both passages are written in the first person form, and both are about the writer’s first day to a school. One clear difference is the level of complexity and clarity with regards to information which is more prominent in passage B, written by Austin Clarke, whereas; passage A, by John Wickham explores his own feelings and reactions relative to his age; this Is to allow the reader to empathize with the author in his experiences.

The first passage has an audience of young adults or older, similar to the audience of passage B, this is shown by the elements of a certain questioning and philosophy explored through the intricacies, or rather, the simplicity of friendship such as, “…whether the thing that we shared could justify its claim to the title of friendship,” or how the writer became friends with this character George after a simple gesture, as these may only appeal to those already well ahead in life and subsequently their experiences of friendship. Certain features of passage B would restrict its purpose of entertainment and deeper purpose of breaking (explored further) preconceived goals to the previously mentioned audience such as the rituals of entering school like the haircutting, “… sat me down on the throne of a chair… when I got up, my head was clean.” Despite being lower on the descriptive scale, passage A through its unique style and sentence structure, “I think now that there was also in me a little envy…” or “Now, before I use the word, I must, as it were, look behind my back,” along with the use of a named character of relevance to the story, has an effect on the reader to keep him spell-bound and thoroughly curious to discover the drama of the story better. The previously mentioned latter example is also a display of its unique, but not necessarily complex, form of punctuation, which adds to the previous effect of keeping the writer hooked.

Passage B is not lacking in any spell binding features, its usage of humor,” …whether the D inL2D stood for ‘dunce’” and a vernacular respecting the mentioned country of Barbados, “Not on your blasted bottom dollar!” achieves an effect of creating interest. Passage B, through its many descriptive sequences, “Delcina, the tallest, blackest and most beautiful woman…”,”The washing, white as snow and ironed like glass,” and its use of exaggeration, “New but uncertain world,” and similes, “looking like a small silver coffin,” and characterizing of the authors mother all serve the purpose of painting a picture of the authors autobiography.

I believe both these accounts given by the authors achieve their effect successfully, mainly to entertain, both in different ways, while adopting similar tones of frankness as seen by a hint of satire in the first passage and slang in the second. Both authors convey their experiences while allowing the reader to relate with them, seeing as a main content point is of school which has the intention of evoking nostalgia and longing which helps supports the ultimate effect of their individual autobiographies.

 

First Impressions: Q1. How does the writer describe the thoughts and feelings of the narrator? By Raphael Kahlid

A1. This passage is a first person narration of himself in elementary school, told to be “Thirty-five years ago.” John Wickham, the author, titles the passage “The First time I met George” which gives a blatantly obvious indication of what the passage is about.

Being quite descriptive of his narration by giving the time frame and the full name of George, the author paints a picture of two children in that time for the reader. His elaboration on the use of friends is a reference to how the definitions and ideals of friendship may have changed since his time of writing and the actual event. The writer’s tone to the passage is clearly a subjective one as he describes his reactions to seeing George to be influenced by his past or present situation, an example of which can be seen in the narrator’s “… little envy of his fortune in having a fathers hand to clutch…” referring to his feelings to his own lack of support. His description of George regarding the theme which is “first impressions”, as George was ‘frightened” on his first day, clearly expresses to the reader the situation.

The purpose is to entertain, for the most part, but also holds a simple message, of how small gestures can change a great deal. There is an overall air of frankness in the passage given the personal feel of the narration with references to the writers feelings such as, “That made me angry…” or the use of the term “…us humbler folk” when referring to his grade with a tinge of sarcasm.

The narrator shows his initial dislike towards George due to his then childish feeling of unfairness felt when George was favored by his headmaster, however, to prove the claim of the passage that first impressions shouldn’t let you define a person forever; the writer uses the “simple gesture” that allows a bond of friendship to be formed through that act of generosity. I believe through this and the vernacular like, “They put him to sit next to me,” the narrator allows the reader through his own eyes and experiences change the idea that many people hold about the overrated importance of first impressions.