AS Lit: poems we have studied so far

The poems we have studied are highlighted below:

Please make sure your annotations are up-to-date.

AS Lit: Online Streetcar study guide

Here you can find a:Comprehensive guide to Streetcar
It tracks the plot & themes for you - as well as providing some context and  background.
Favourite it now!

A2 Lang Lit: The Tyger

A2 Lang Lit - Blake's London: a commentary

AS Literature - Chainsaw versus The Pampas Grass

A2 Lang Lit: Blake's London

AS Literature - The Map Woman

You might find this analysis of The Map Woman useful:

Map Woman Analysis from Mrs McMinn

AS Comms & Culture - extension work/need a break work

1. Read the following article on subculture click here.
    Do you agree with the views expressed - why?


2. Watch the following clip about Banksy, the graffiti artist:





Find some examples of Banksy's work on the internet, and copy and past them into a word document. For each one, write down what you notice about how the image is constructed (use semiotics!) and what meanings you think he is creating - what point is he trying to make?

A2 LangLit: The Chimney Sweeper poems

The following article offers an interpretation and analysis of the Chimney Sweeper poems: click here.

AS Lit: Patience Agbabi

Patience Agbabi, who wrote Eat Me, is a performance poet. You can see her performing a different poem below:

AS Lit: online version of A Streetcar Named Desire

You can find A Streetcar Named Desire online here:
 http://teacherweb.com/GA/KMHS/Jaquish/Streetcar-Named-Desire-Full-Text.pdf

A2 Lang Lit - The Little Girl Found

A2 Lang Lit: The Little Girl Lost

AS Comms - Are you a hipster?

AS Comms - Studying subculture

Watch the following 3 hip hop videos and make notes on how they present the subculture of hip hop:

1. NWA - Express Yourself



2. Common - I used to love her



3. Ice Cube - Today was a good day

A2 Lang Lit - Death of a Salesman

An interesting take on DOS and the American Dream (warning - contains spoilers):

AS Comms - consolidating semiotics

Click here for a good online tutorial, which explains semiotics in an accessible way.

A2 LL - Death of a Salesman

Find out what inspired Miller to write Death of a Salesman by watching this.


Then listen to Miller explaining his thoughts on Willy Loman in the clip below:

Introducing Semiotics

AS Comms - Consolidating High & Popular Culture

Watch this short tutorial on High and Popular Culture: click here

AS Lit - How to analyse a poem

AS Comms - Culture: two good clips to watch

AS Lit - the poems we are studying

These are the poems from Poems of the Decade that we are studying for the exam:

‘To my Nine-Year-Old Self’ by Helen Dunmore

‘An Easy Passage’ by Julia Copus

‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’ by Leontia Flynn

‘A Leisure Centre is also a Temple of Learning’ by Sue Boyle

‘Inheritance’ by Eavan Boland

‘Out of the Bag’ by Seamus Heaney

‘The Fox in the National Museum of Wales’ by Robert Minhinnick

‘History’ by John Burnside

‘Eat Me’ by Patience Agbabi

‘The Gun’ by Vicki Feaver

‘The Map Woman’ by Carol Ann Duffy

‘Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass’ by Simon Armitage

‘Effects’ by Alan Jenkins

‘Material’ by Ros Barber

‘Genetics’ by Sinead Morrissey

‘Song’ by George Szirtes

‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll

‘You, Shiva and My Mum’ by Ruth Padal

‘Look We Have Coming to Dover’ by Dalgit Nagra

‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’ by Tim Turnbull

‘Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright’ by Sean O’Brien

‘From the Journal of a Disappointed Man’ by Andrew Motion

‘The War Correspondent’ by Ciaron Carson

‘Guiseppe’ by Roderick Ford

‘The Deliverer’ by Tishani Doshi

‘The Lammas Hireling’ by Ian Duhig

‘On Her Blindness’ by Adam Thorpe

‘A Minor Role’ by U. A. Fanthorpe

 

AS Lit: the first 4 poems

Visit the Padlet pages below and leave a comment on each page:


A leisure centre is also a temple of learning

To my 9 year old self

An easy passage

The furthest distances I've travelled

A2 Lang Lit - Blake documentary

Watch this documentary about William Blake: click here

AS Lit - Lesson 1 & 2

How are we going to learn this year?

https://youtu.be/PZo2PIhnmNY


Doing Poetry Right
https://youtu.be/Cca7SRzsbBw


Performance Poetry - Kanye West

https://youtu.be/M17XewSVeUo


Performance Poetry - Lauryn Hill

https://youtu.be/kntNPyThiH0


Performance Poetry - Ronak Patani

https://youtu.be/LGDXyoYlKlQ

AS Literature - Welcome to the course

Welcome to AS Literature!

Key details:

You can contact me on cdignum@rutc.ac.uk
I can be found in 1C2a or 1D11/a
Our lessons are on Fridays, starting at 11.20 sharp, in 1D25

Our set texts this year, for my side of the course:

Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poems
A Streetcar Named Desire

Please buy these texts as soon as possible.

This is essential viewing for any Literature student - please watch it before next week:

A2 Language & Literature - Consolidating the first lesson

This is an analysis of the first Blake poem we have looked at as a class. It's only 10 minutes long. Watch and see if there is anything you want to add to your notes. Remember, this is just an interpretation - you do not have to agree with the points made!

 

 

William Blake was an interesting man. Read the article below from emagazine for an excellent overview of what made him tick:

 

 

 Blake, William: A critical essay exploring his visionary poetry and art
emagazine 1 September 1998

Blake: a critical essay

A discussion of William Blake’s visionary poems and paintings.
Some people think that William Blake must have been taking drugs – even though he is now regarded as one English Literature’s greatest poets and artists. He was born in London in 1757 and lived there for most of his life while he toiled away in obscurity, writing poems and drawing pictures which sang of the joys of a child-like imagination and condemned the evils of the adult world.

If you look at his paintings it’s not difficult to see why some might think that Blake was on drugs: human bodies grow out of trees, travellers in the night carry globes of fire, evil red dragons loom over the world, prophets walk through whirlwinds of eyes. Many of the pictures are coloured in the kind of enhanced, unlikely colours – volcano oranges, ocean blues, twilight turquoises – that you might connect with a trip. ‘Yeah man, that Billy Blake must have been off his face most of the time,’ a hippy friend once confided. There isn’t much evidence to support the argument that Blake was a pill-popping, dope-smoking raver. For one thing, he lived nearly two hundred years ago and he was poor; generally it was only the richer guys – like the poet Coleridge – who got to sample the opium that was flooding into the country.

Anyway, Blake started having his visions at an age when most people just don’t take drugs. At eight he saw a tree filled with angels, bright wings bespangling every bough. It was the first of many ‘visions’ which Blake was to have throughout his life; he frequently talked to angels, fairies, ghosts and Biblical prophets, all of whom were as real to him as other human beings.

During his lifetime, many people thought Blake was mad. It’s certainly true that if he were alive today a doctor might recommend at least a visit to the therapist. But Blake wasn’t mad. Instead he had what psychologists call an ‘eidetic imagination’ – the ability to visualise and bring to life the creations of his own imagination. Can you imagine possessing such a gift? The moment you think of someone, you’re able to see them there right in front of you, a living, breathing person. It’s partly this vision which makes Blake’s paintings so extraordinarily ‘real’ and alive.

William Blake was also a rebel. He hated schools, prisons, the church, lawyers and the law, the monarchy and the corrupt, repressive political system of England in the late eighteenth century. Blake believed in ideals which seem modern now: free speech, democracy, nudism and free love – all in an age when to believe in any of these things could land you in jail. Even today his habit of wandering naked around the back garden with his wife ‘like Adam and Eve’ could have led to trouble. He did get arrested for allegedly mouthing off against the King to a yobbish soldier who had drunkenly invaded Blake’s front garden (good job he didn’t make it to the back garden). Saying anything against the King in 1802 was a very serious charge; people were hanged for treason. Thankfully, he was acquitted but he had suffered a very bad scare, and he became increasingly paranoid.

Another remarkable thing about Blake is that he was the world’s first multi-media artist. He saw the printed page as a total concept, words and illustrations totally integrated. Today’s computer technology means that these printed pages reproduced on a large scale – something that was impossible even a few years ago. The Blake Trust in combination with Tate Gallery has just published all of his illuminated books. For the first time since his death, the full glory of his unique combination of images and poetry is available to a wide audience in affordable paperback form.

The Internet will also increase access to Blake’s work. If you type the words ‘William Blake Archive’ in any search engine you should find one of the most amazing sites on the web. Blake’s images download quickly and a good colour monitor comes close to conveying the magic of his art. It has taken nearly 200 years for technology to catch up with Blake’s visionary art. He was far too smart to need drugs.

This article first appeared in emagazine, issue 1, September 1998

 

A2 Language & Literature



 


















Welcome to A2 Language & Literature...

First things first - I will be teaching you the coursework texts for A2 Lang Lit, which will be:

• Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (you can buy it here )
• William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience (we will provide you with the poems)

AS Comms - how do adverts use stories to sell products?

 

 

 

AS Literature - King Lear/Edmond 1.2

 

 

Compare the way Edmond's speech is presented in these 3 clips.

AS Comms - final advice for tomorrow

The AS Comms exam is at 9.30am tomorrow in the Sports Hall.
Please make sure that you are there by 9.10 at the latest.

Remember:

There will be 4 questions - all equally weighted (20 marks):
Qu 1 will be on Culture
Qu 2 will be on Identity & self presentation
Qu 3 is the semiotics question
Qu 4 is the 'wild card' question, which asks you to draw from across the course

Spend 25 minutes on each question: 5 mins reading the question & planning; 20 minutes writing.

For Qu 3, spend a minute per mark (e.g. if a question is worth 4 marks, spend 4 minutes on it). It is fine to give bullet point answers for questions worth 2-6 marks.

How to write a strong answer:

- put the question at the centre of your answer
- use Comms & Culture terminology
- use specific examples through which to explore the question
- apply theory to your specific examples
- never put the examiner in a position where they are asking 'so?'; 'and?' or 'why?' about your answer


Example of an student answer which does the above:

·        We use verbal communication and NVC as a means of gaining power and status over others

Power and status are two things key to people’s sense of self; gaining these attributes requires a specific use of verbal communication and NVC. One of the most physical and clear examples of this is divergence; this is when a power figure, or someone trying to achieve a role of power widens the gap between how they speak compared to the person they are speaking to. For example, a manager who may not speak with very prevalent R.P. might make that accent more prevalent in the context of disciplining an employee. Goffman would argue that the manager is using their voice as a ‘prop’ while ‘front stage’ to achieve more power over their co-actor. This is a means of gaining power and status. Goffman would in turn argue that the manager is likely to change their voice while ‘back stage’, while away from work, when asserting power is less relevant.

Moreover, proxemics – how far away people are from each other – can be used to gain power and status over someone else. An argument between two teenagers would be a prime example of this. Standing over someone connotes a sense of higher status and makes the other person feel small physically and metaphorically. Berne would argue that using proxemics in an aggressive and attacking way would be an example of the ‘child ego state’, as proxemics embodies the physical nature of a tantrum. {Although Berne’s ego states fails to take into account any overlaps of the three states.} An argument may be in a controlling ‘parent’ context – although this would still demonstrate a desire for power and status.

In addition, both verbal communication and NVC can be used in harmony to create a sincere performance; thus gaining power and status. Status is sometimes inferred, like a pupil knows the teacher has the power but may try to challenge this by not conforming to the paradigm of expected class behaviour. The teacher might then try to re install their sense of status by changing their paralanguage and shouting. Shouting may not re-gain status but it is a trait identified with a position of power.

Overall, verbal communication and NVC are used in order to gain a means of power from both quietly elevating a person, as well as loudly asserting dominance.

 

GOOD LUCK!

AS Comms - Question 3

AS Comms - Practice question 3 (semiotics)

1. Identify and briefly explain the use of icons, indexes and symbols in this text. (6)
Scan the codes below for suggested answers:

Indexes

Icons

Symbols

2. Comment on the use of anchorage within this text. (6)

3. How are Arsenal being represented within the text? (8)

AS Lit: 'Behind me - dips Eternity'

Time is presented in 'Behind me - dips Eternity' in various ways. The structure of the poem itself creates an idea of time being an endless entity, while Dickinson also uses the idea of time to question the idea of life.

One of the most noticeable elements of time in this poem can be seen through the way the poem is structured. The poem does not contain a full sentence, but rather just contains a series of phrases separated by hyphens. One interpretation of Dickinson's decision to exclude any complete sentences in her poem is that she's trying to replicate how time itslf has no 'full sentence' Time as we know it does not have a start, nor does it have an ending, and so it can be argued that Dickinson is trying her best to replicate that endless and immeasurable sense of time within her poem. Furthermore, even though there is no full stop in the poem, it is still read at a relatively slow pace. This is because the numerous caesurae used in the poem is very disruptive: 'In perfect - pauseless Monarchy.' In this sense we could argue that Dickinson is trying to manipulate our sense of time, by making the poem appear to be fast paced, yet it actually moves along very slowly. Perhaps this is what we perceive time to be in our ordinary lives, since time often appears to go quickly, yet in reality time is not actually altering its pace, rather it's just our perception of time that alters.

Nervertheless, in the first stanza of the poem Dickinson tries to position herself on a sort of timescale: 'Behind Me - dips Eternity - / Before me - Immortality - /Myself - the term between.' This unconventional way of trying to enhance our understanding of abstract concepts by mixing it with something concrete and visable is a common technique throughout her poems. In this instance, however, she is using the idea of 'positioning' and geography to help us gain a more vivid image of how vast time is and how little we are in relation to time. This metaphor creates an image of Dickinson pinpointing her position on a map, and when viewed in this context, Dickinson is making us realise how vast time is.

AS Lit: A narrow Fellow in the Grass

AS Lit: Going to Him! Happy letter!

AS Lit - It was not Death, for I stood up

AS Lit - I heard a Fly buzz- when I died-

AS Lit: Behind Me - dips Eternity -

AS Lit - This World is not Conclusion

AS Lit: What mystery pervades a well!

AS Comms - Qu3 revision - My Butt is big

Let's think about:

- the use of icon, symbol and index in in this text. Can you find an example of each and briefly explain it?

- the use of anchorage. Read the copy again and analyse how it is being used to fix the meaning of the text (think also about tone, layout...)

- how Nike has chosen to represent women in this text (and why): which ideological beliefs is it challenging and supporting? How does it compare with how women are often represented in texts?

AS Comms - group identity

AS Lit: 754 My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

 My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun

Poem 754, ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun’ is an obvious example of how Emily Dickinson personifies and characterizes inanimate objects. However, this poem is particularly unusual because it not only depicts the relationship between a gun and its owner, but is actually narrated from the perspective of the gun itself. 

Firstly, there is a sense of passivity about the gun having stood ‘In Corners’, before subsequently being ‘carried…away’ by the owner. Despite this, there is a clear sense of danger about the gun itself; it being loaded but unused suggests that it could exert deadly force, but chooses to retain this inaction. 

The use of anaphora in the second stanza concerning the words ‘And now’ arguably serves to lend a sense of pride to the tone of the narrator, through the jump to the present tense and the use of the pronoun ‘We’. Therefore, the gun takes great pleasure in now being involved in a kind of partnership with the owner. The verbs used- such as ‘roam’ and ‘hunt’- are also much more active than the previous stanza, again giving a sense of the gun being brought to life. 

The relationship between the gun and the owner is explored in more depth further on in the poem, when the former ‘guard(s) my Master’s Head-‘. There is an idea conveyed here of protectiveness, which in turn implies the strength of loyalty the gun has to the owner. This is reinforced in the following stanza, which states ‘To foe of His - I’m deadly foe-‘. Although the power balance in this relationship could lie with the gun, being the object with ‘the power to kill’, it is clear that it only acts when on behalf of the owner (‘every time I speak for Him’) and refers to him as ‘Master’. Furthermore, the last stanza claims that although the gun will physically outlive the owner, ‘He longer must – than I- /For I have but the power to kill, /Without – the power to die-‘. 
Although several alternative interpretations exist, it seems plausible that the gun is stating an attachment to the owner and an unwillingness to outlive him, and indeed places the power of death above the ability of living beings to take life. On the other hand, it could be a literal statement that the owner will continue existence past the moment of his death, being in the afterlife. Therefore, the owner will outlast the gun in a spiritual sense because he possesses a soul, which clearly the latter does not. 

Interestingly, the poem is written in hymn format; in quatrain, with a syllable pattern of 8686. The rhyming scheme is ABCB, although some rhymes are pararhymes. In this manner, it is almost as if the gun is worshipping the owner, by narrating their story by using this structure. Dickinson also employs a great deal of caesura in this poem, reflecting the jump not only from scene to scene, but the gun’s own stream of conscious thought. 

Poem 494 (‘Going to Him! Happy Letter!’) is also addressed to a man whom the poet feels great affection for, and holds similarities in that neither this man nor the man in 754 are ever mentioned by name. However, 494 is seemingly unstructured with no clear rhyming scheme, conveying a sense of excitement that lacks the controlled tone of the gun. 

AS Literature: 501 This World is not Conclusion

501 This World is not Conclusion

In this poem, Dickinson explores what lies beyond the human world – and concludes that there are no satisfactory answers to this question. The only complete sentence in the poem is the very first line: ‘This World is not Conclusion.’ There is a certain irony in the fact that this is the only completed thought (signified by the full stop) in the poem. The rest of the poem is structured through a series of thoughts, characterised by Dickinson’s frequent use of the dash, thoughts which are left hanging in the last line of the poem with the final dash used: ‘That nibbles at the soul –‘ Perhaps Dickinson uses this structure to help suggest that there are no answers, that our quest for understanding will always be left incomplete. The mystery of what exists beyond human existence is personified in line 5 with ‘It beckons, and it baffles-‘ suggesting that this is a ‘Riddle’ that humans simply can’t solve, despite the tempting answers that might be on offer.

The most interesting thing for me about the poem is the way it appears to reject any religious argument for what lies beyond the human world. Dickinson's careful use of the word ‘Species’ in line 2 – ‘A Species stands beyond’- can be seen as an allusion to Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859), in itself a text which was seen to challenge conventional religious belief with its presentation of the theory of evolution. Later in the poem, the personification of Faith as a clumsy and naïve fool – ‘Faith slips – and laughs, and rallies - /Blushes’ – emphasises the weaknesses of religious faith in providing a credible argument, and this is enhanced further when we are told that Faith ‘plucks at a twig of Evidence’. The verb ‘plucks’ suggests desperation, and when matched with the noun ‘twig’ (insubstantial – not even a branch!), there is the sense that Dickinson is ridiculing the way that many people cling to religion as an answer to the big questions of human existence. The Church as an institution is also challenged towards the end of the poem, with preaching described as no more than an empty performance through the phrase ‘Much Gesture’ and the suggestion that ‘Strong Hallelujahs roll’ off the tongue like hot air – sounding good, but amounting to nothing. Dickinson’s conclusion - if she reaches one – is about the failure of religion rather than what the answer to the mysteries of life are. In using the analogy of drugs in the final two lines of the poem ('Narcotics cannot still the Tooth/That nibbles at the soul - '), drugs which might dull the pain of toothache but will never actually cure the source of the pain, she makes the point that whilst religion might appear to provide the answers, actually this is a false solution, one which perhaps keeps people quiet and docile but stops them from questioning and challenging accepted beliefs.

Link this poem with 721 and 465.

AS Comms - The party leaders & self presentation

AS Comms - revising Language

AS Comms - Cultural exchange or cultural appropriation?

Practice ED questions - scan the QR code when you are ready to start

ED Question 1:

ED Question 2:

ED Question 3:

AS Literature - notes on ED poems

Click here to reach a website which has notes on every single poem that ED ever wrote!
Useful to see how the ideas about our set poems compares to what we have come up with in class.

AS Comms - Goffman in 2 minutes

AS Lit - good critical analysis of ED

Click here to reach the American Poetry site. You can find on this page criticism on 258, 280, 341, 465, 712, & 754. Especially good for challenging yourself further.

AS Comms - Group behaviour / Zimbardo

AS Comms - and now the revision begins (for those who have finished MM)

Watch the clip below:

Now think about how you can apply all of the Comms course to Facebook as a case-study. For example - how would you apply:

• the Johari Window
• Goffman
• Gergen & Gergen's SM strategies
• Cooley's looking glass self
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Ideal self / self image/self esteem
• NVC

Make notes using the above as headings, and then add your contributions to The Facebook Padlet. Simply doubleclick anywhere on the page to type in your ideas about one of the headings above, and then repeat for the other headings.

AS Comms - who decides what culture is?

Click here to watch a vlog from the BBC, which explores the question: who decides what culture is?

AS Lit: example answers on ED poems

Here is a great blog, which includes example answers on the ED poems we are studying for the exam. Click here to reach the blog.

AS Comms - Black Mirror

Watch the episode of Black Mirror below, which explores reality tv and the cult of the celebrity:

The drama is set in a dystopian future - but what comment is it trying to make about today's society? Do you agree with the arguments being made? How might you counterargue?

Click here to read a blog from The Independent Newspaper about the drama and its relevance to contemporary society.

AS Comms - How is technology changing us?

Listen to Melyvn Bragg's podcast on 'How technology has changed us' by clicking here.

Watch the animation below and then follow this link to watch 3 further animations in this series on how technology is changing us. Afterwards, reflect on the ideas raised that you find most persuasive and interesting.

AS Comms: Getting started with MovieMaker

Here's a very basic guide to getting started with MovieMaker. I'll follow it up with another one, which will demonstrate the next steps/more advanced functions of MM.
PS Apologies for the heavy breathing - will try & sort that out for the next one!

AS Lit - Q&A with Iweala

Click here to read an interview with Iweala about how and why he wrote the novel.

Click here to read another Q&A with him.

AS Lit: how to write a comparative essay / 2000 word coursework

HOW TO WRITE A COMPARATIVE ESSAY

 

Use your first paragraph to set up your analysis, to contextualise your texts, and to present your thesis (your overarching argument, which will hold your essay together).  When you are writing about two whole texts, you need to give an overview of both texts before plunging straight into detailed analysis. (When you are writing about two extracts from two texts, you also need to put the extracts into context too.)

 

Example 1:

Compare the presentation of change within ‘Purple Hibiscus’ and ‘Things Fall Apart’

 

Both ‘Purple Hibiscus’ (2003) by Chimamanda Adichie and ‘Things Fall Apart’ (1958) by Chinua Achebe explore the theme of change within their novels. Although there is a contrast in the authors’ gender and the period their novels were written in, both novels share the element of change within a Nigerian setting. ‘Purple Hibiscus’ centres on the journey of Kambili, a teenage girl who finds means of freedom within her own family, whilst ‘Things Fall Apart’ focuses on the effects that colonialism and culture have on a community. What is evident within both texts is that change is irreversible – for both the individual and society – even if it is resisted.

 

Example 2:

Compare the presentation of transformation in “Junk” by Melvin Burgess and “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice.

 

In both texts, “Junk” written by Melvin Burgess and “Interview with the Vampire” written by Anne Rice, the writers place the process of transformation at the centre of their narratives. Both writers focus on change in different ways but what connects the texts is that the main characters go on a journey – these journeys are linked to change, mentally and physically, and these changes are presented by both writer through a first person narration.

Once you have introduced your essay, you need to divide up your essay into areas (or strands of argument). For example, in an essay on the presentation of violence in ‘Beasts of no Nation’ and ‘Blue Remembered Hills’, you might want to use these areas to focus on:

     -   how the process of violence is used to dehumanise characters

-  violence and its relationship with power

-  violence and its relationship with identity (fear of being an outsider & the need to ‘belong’)

-   the use of violence to mark a significant development in a character / to foreshadow later events

- violence and morality (including the reader’s/audience’s judgement)

(These are just ideas!)

 

Next, start each ‘area’ of your essay by making a comparative comment about both texts at the start of the paragraph.  For example:

The idea of change within the novels is apparent from the way each writer has constructed their openings.

or

The main characters in both texts begin their narratives innocently, with a lack of knowledge about the unknown.

 

Then go on to focus on this in one text in detail. Remember that you need to focus on how that idea is being presented, so you should be analysing your writer’s use of language, or juxtaposition, or use of metaphor … etc. For example:

 

In "Junk" there is a certain relief involved in Tar's altered psychological state. When Tar's first experience taking heroin is recorded, the writer emphasises that his troubles are leaving him; this suggests that the drug seems to unburden him, it is a form of escaping Tar's "nightmares of the past". The phrase, "It just floated away" enhances the idea that he perceives himself as remaining static and that it is the "negative stuff" that has left him. The word "floating" suggests a romantic quality and does not relate to the very real pain that Tar is mentally facing.

 

You then need to focus on your second text comparatively. Introduce your comments with a comparative word or phrase; for example:

Similarly;                                                               This can also be seen in …;       

This idea is echoed in ..;                                       Like XXX, YYY …;       

This is also the case in …;            

 

In contrast,                                                             Conversely,                

However,                                                                On the other hand,    

Unlike XXX, YYY …;                                                This is explored in a different way by

 

Repeat this for the other areas you are exploring. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to compare between texts in every sentence – this will prevent you from developing your points in the detail you need to get a decent mark. It will usually be in your transitions within your essay that the comparisons will be made.