AQA ANTHOLOGY SHORT STORIES

1
AQA ANTHOLOGY SHORT STORIES
2
AQA ANTHOLOGY

• Flight by Doris Lessing
• Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit by Sylvia
  Plath
• Your Shoes by Michele Roberts
• Growing Up by Joyce Cary
• The End of Something by Ernest Hemmingway
• Chemistry by Graham Swift
• Snowdrops by Leslie Norris
• Summary

3
FLIGHT

• The old man keeps pigeons which he cares for,
  showing his kind, caring nature.
• The granddaughter is growing up and he does not
  like this.
• His mood is influenced by his granddaughters
  appearance. He becomes troubles, angry and
  over-protective. He thinks she is too young to be
  courting.
• The description of her boyfriend, Steven, from
  the old mans point of view is very negative and
  he seems like a violent youth.
• He is angry as he does not want her to grow up.
• She remains defiant, showing she is older now and
  can stand up to him.
• He is powerless, as when he goes to his
  granddaughters mother (his own daughter) she
  tells him not to be so silly.
• He feels empty and alone and cries.

4

• They give him a pigeon as a peace offering. He
  seems childish as he accepts it.
• He feels shut out by their grown up nature.
• He lets his favourite pigeon go, almost as if he
  feels this is symbolic of having to let his final
  granddaughter go.
• The woman, his granddaughter, watches this, mixed
  with the doves.
• The doves all return, but there is no mention of
  the pigeon who is gone forever.
• His granddaughter is in tears at the end as she
  perhaps realises finally why her grandfather is
  so upset.
• He is described as grandfather at the end and
  just old man at the beginning, an indication that
  he has become more of a person to her at the end.

5
SUPERMAN AND PAULA BROWNS NEW SNOWSUIT

• Set in Boston, USA.
• The first section deals with the authors dreams
  which are colourful and imaginative.
• Superman dominates the dreams and gives a sense
  of innocence, freedom and liberation.
• Superman games are played at school, but only by
  the writer and David, making them outsiders.
  Another outsider joins them as the villain. They
  seem childish and innocent at this time.
• The dream Superman looks like the narrators
  Uncle Frank which shows the narrators admiration
  for him.
• The backdrop of war gives a sense of foreboding
  to the second half of the story.

6

• The childs world continues with the birthday
  party of Paula Brown, which is full of
  traditional childrens things.
• Seeing the film about Japanese prisoners of war
  makes the narrator sick and begins the start of
  reality into the story as Superman doesnt come
  to save the day.
• When they play Chinese tag the narrator is
  blamed, falsely for the accident and there seems
  no way out, no help.
• The narrator is clearly an outsider now and no
  one comes to help.
• Even the Superman figure of her Uncle does not
  seem to help much, although he does not shift the
  blame fully.
• The language and imagery at the end suggest the
  frustration of the narrator at the unfairness of
  it all.
• Suddenly from childish innocence, there is the
  harsh realisation of the real world, which is not
  a nice and fair place.
• Everything changes forever from this point.

7
YOUR SHOES

• A monologue from the point of view of a mother.
• She is talking to the shoes, gradually we feel
  less sympathy for her.
• Her daughter has run away, but she seems more
  concerned about how she feels than about her
  daughter.
• She likes order in her life and hates the chaos
  that her daughters disappearance has caused.
• She imagines the squalor that her daughter may
  now be living in and hates the idea of it,
  begging for money and maybe prostitution.
• We hear about the cause of her disappearance, her
  father has called her some terrible things.
• She takes the attitude that when she was young
  they werent spoilt and that they have given her
  everything she wanted, but this is contradicted
  by the curtain incident, which shows that they
  gave her everything they wanted her to have, not
  what she wanted.

8

• She expresses unhappiness with the mob she got
  in with at school.
• She is surprised her daughter hasnt taken her
  new shoes, but they are a reminder of her
  mothers controlling nature and she would not
  want them.
• They are not good at expressing feelings, which
  is ironic as that is what the passage is doing,
  but it is too late now.
• Her attitude to her daughter shows she does not
  understand she is growing up.
• She feels her daughter is empty headed and
  labels both her and her friends as undesirables,
  showing her prejudices.
• Her background may explain why she feels this way
  as she felt insecure as a child.
• She dislikes her mother and feels her daughter is
  turning out like her.
• Her own marriage turns out to be just a re-bound,
  so her whole life is based on a lack of love.
• She feels a failure and that everyone is blaming
  her for this. She wallows in her own self pity.
• There is a worrying sense of insanity at the end,
  she talks to the shoes as if they are her
  daughter and holds them close to her. Perhaps if
  she had done this when her daughter was there
  then none of this would have happened.

9
GROWING UP

• The wild garden reflects the wildness of the
  girls.
• There is a clear divide between daughters and
  father, they do not fully communicate with him,
  but then he does not with them either.
• Mr and Mrs Quick seem to neglect their daughters
  with his work and her social life.
• The daughters are presented as untidy and dirty,
  certainly not the sweet innocent daughter figures
  the father imagines them to be.
• He almost seems scared of his daughters and when
  Jenny and Kate do communicate with him, it is in
  a savage manner.
• They are violent to the dog. The language becomes
  angry, violent and fragmented to emphasise the
  horror of the situation.
• Robert Quick is shocked, but his remonstration is
  pathetic and results in the savage game where his
  daughters attack him like a wild animal.
• He almost seems like a bullied child here.
• They talk to him like he is at least an equal
  and, in fact, inferior to them when they inspect
  the plaster they have placed on his cut.
• They show adult seriousness and responsibility
  when handing round cake at the tea party their
  mother holds.
• He realises they have changed, grown up and he is
  older too, their relationship has changed.

10
THE END OF SOMETHING

• The closing down of the mill and the slumbering
  town shows that once something has outlived its
  usefulness it has to end. This can be linked to
  the end of Nick and Marjories relationship.
• The atmosphere when Nick and Marjorie visit is
  one of emptiness, loneliness.
• They fish, but there seems little sense of
  closeness between them. It is difficult to tell
  what their relationship is or how old they are.
• Nick advises Marjorie on how to fish. He seems
  the character with the skill.
• The catching of a trout is exhilarating.
• Nick is irritated by Marjorie knowing everything.
  He feels he taught her. There is a lack of warmth
  and contact between them.
• When she urges him to tell her whats wrong he
  says that their relationship isnt fun, but is he
  also referring to life in general?
• There is an atmosphere of sadness as there is no
  argument, she just leaves him after he claims
  life isnt fun.
• Bill arrives and it seems Nick had planned to
  split up with Marjorie all along.
• Nick needs time to think after it is all over.
• There is a sense of life going on as Bill eats a
  sandwich.
• The passage explores relationships and how
  painful the end of a relationship can be.

11
CHEMISTRY

• The first section shows the fond relationship the
  narrator shares with his Grandfather.
• This all changes after the seemly unsinkable boat
  they sail sinks representing a death.
• Ralph is an unpleasant figure to the narrator and
  is presented as being loud and coarse. He seems
  powerful and large, but is kept under control by
  the narrators mother.
• The Grandfather is gradually made more of an
  outsider despite the fact they live in his house.
• The Grandfather has looked after his daughter and
  Grandson since the narrators father died.
• Grandfather tries to wind up Ralph by eating
  slowly and generally being difficult.
• The shed is a place of safety and is a mini home.
• People change is a clear message of the piece.
  This can be linked to Grandfathers experiments
  with Chemistry as he changes things on the
  surface, although deeper down they stay the same.
• The narrators mother seems to decline under the
  influence of Ralph and alcohol. She seems trapped
  under his influence.

12

• Ralph is described as being like an animal.
• The narrator plans to throw acid in Ralph's face,
  showing the hatred held for him.
• Visited by his father in a dream the narrator
  feels his mother is to blame for the sinking of
  his boat and the end of the good relationship
  they all once had. He also convinces himself that
  his mother killed his own father. He needs a
  scapegoat.
• This is all prevented by his Grandfathers death.
• Pathetic fallacy is used where it is raining to
  reflect the mood of the sad scene.
• The official verdict was suicide, but the
  narrator feels there was more to it, blaming his
  mother for shutting him out of their lives.
• The end is a poignant and sad memory of his
  grandfather catching the boat as he always used
  to. He is gone but the memory remains.

13
SNOWDROPS

• The passage opens with language of a parent
  talking to a young child, showing this is about
  young children.
• The father seems especially big compared to the
  small children. He almost seems to keep them safe
  and warm from the harsh weather outside.
• The Meredith boy is being buried, at only 20 this
  is a clear tragedy. He was friendly with Miss
  Webster, the young boys teacher.
• School seems a happy place, with warmth, laughter
  and interesting things to do.
• There is a large build up to seeing the
  snowdrops, it is an exciting voyage of discovery
  for the boys.
• Miss Webster arrives later, all in black from the
  funeral. She is clearly upset, but tries to put
  on a brave face.

14

• The boy doesn't understand what has happened and
  thinks she is sad because of her trapped finger.
• Miss Webster doesnt finish the story but takes
  them to see the snowdrops at the time the funeral
  is due to begin.
• The snowdrops are examined, to the backdrop of
  the funeral.
• When the boy wants to ask Miss Webster suddenly
  she is gone and her back is to them. There is a
  hardness about her as she is now fully adult and
  not involved in their childish world.
• The snowdrops are fragile, like human life and
  human emotions.
• The ending is sad, with the children frightened
  as Miss Webster cries in the middle of them,
  unable to contain her grief anymore.
• There is a clear gap between the harsh adult
  world and the innocence of children.

15
Summary

• Some of the stories present the changes from
  childhood to adolescence.
• They look at how adults cope with their children
  getting older.
• They examine the relationships children and young
  adults have with each other and how they deal
  with them.
• It is important to compare two stories in exam
  answers.