English A1 HL paper 1

[lulzpup]

I actually lol'd when I read the goldfish one. I loved the parentheses to make it look like it was in a bowl. I talked about a "humorous take on a love story between two goldfish" and the whole not being able to escape your environment unless you die kinda thing. Made more sense/was more professional sounding but yeah it was so cute.

[CommeDesEnfants]

I knew I should've talked more about death! x_x In the last 5 minutes, I realized that the words "go beyond," could be a reference to death - you know, going to the "great beyond." I suppose the poem was somewhat ironic in that way, but since I was finishing my concluding paragraph at the time, I couldn't exactly fit that in.

[chamberlain2007]

I'm in TZ1 and I did the poem. It was so adorable but kind of hard to make meaning out of.

Did anyone else do the poem?

Hey sweetnsimple, I'm also TZ1. The goldfish poem, right? I thought that was a godsend. I talked about it as an allegory for human romantic love.

I agree completely. I also talked about the simplicity of love, and how it was demonstrated with the language used, as well as the fact that it was fish being used.

[Dhanvin]

Umm..im in TZ2 i did the prose...yea i interpreted that Mr. Marroner had died and that Gerta was pregnant, which she was obviously regretting. But i came to the conclusion that Mr. Marroner died because of what all those letters said, i guess they diverted me, i never realized they had an affair. And Mrs. marroners jealousy part i thought was due to the fact that Gerta was bearing a child, but she herself did not. Overall it was a nice easy going passage i thought, very simple. lol that made it hard to analyze because i could harldy find any literary features, but i still managed to. And yea like someone here mentioned i also said one of the themes was loss of control, it was very evident i mean none of the things that were happening were in the characters' control.

But, lets see what the folks over in Cardiff feel bout it

[HanoBee]

I'm TZ2 and i did the prose. i thought the prose was much easier and much more fun and flexible to interpret. i talked mainly about the element of foreshadowing and compared the aspect of "betrayal" which is in its nature ambiguous until found out, with the element of foreshadowing used by the author to indirectly convey the message of betrayal to the reader. my interpretation was that Gerta and Mr.Marroner were having an affair and this was particularly shown with throughout the last part of the excerpt. i thought the excerpt had a lot of literary features and devices and whatnot. specially like flashbacks and the fluctuation of the tone to outline tension and neutrality. i don't know i bs-ed a lot. i hope it pays haha

[KLSmash]

I'm in TZ1, and I chose the prose (Polar Breath). Normally, I choose the poem immediately since I love poetry, and when I first read the prose I thought there was no way I'd be doing it. However, after spending a few minutes on the poem, I realized that I wouldn't be able to write for 2 hours about it, so I immediately switched to prose and never looked back.

I mentioned many literary devices: figurative language [including imagery (kinaesthetic {feels her fingers are cold and blue}, visual {ice}, auditory {black dog howling}), diction, metaphor], structure, punctuation, tone, mood, atmosphere, symbolism, setting, etc.

I found that the infrequent mention and appearance of birds in the passage represents lack of freedom and motion. Normally, birds are free to fly, and are not trapped; however, the passage begins with them shivering, they try to fly out of the house but hit the window, and as a result, they are used to accentuate the protagonists' lack of freedom. Not only that, but the constant image of vines/wrapping around/spirits wrapping around the house not only creates anxiety and fear within the reader, but also is analogous to how the birds can't fly, and the lack of freedom/mobility in the passage.

Also the setting is quiet interesting as it takes place in a rural town (revealed by the distance of her neighbour and the fact he is spreading manure on his garden rows). So in a sense, the setting equally helps reinforce the theme of isolation, separation and lack of freedom. Not to mention, the woman herself is alone (physically within the passage) with her cat.

Moreover, I enjoyed the surrealist aspect of the passage and the constant blurring between fantastical and ordinary elements, most notably the spirits. In the first 2 paragraphs, you can find many questions about ordinary objects and everyday life such as the birds, but in the proceeding paragraph, which introduces the supernatural spirits, there's no question and it's all short solid statements forcing the reader to accept as true. Equally, this helps establish an ominous mood and atmosphere in the passage, which is effectively emphasized by the setting.

Then, in the 4th paragraph, the author reverts back to writing about ordinary elements; no mention or spirits. However, by the 5th paragraph, it's almost 50% spirits talk/50% ordinary stuff/past memories. So I felt that throughout the first page of the passage, there is obvious juxtaposition in paragraphs, but eventually and inevitably, there occurs an amalgamation of the two (once again going back to the style of surrealism and blurring lines between reality and fantasy).

In conclusion, I wrote that it was a very intense yet unsatisfying passage it as it raises more questions than it answers (what's her involvement with the church? where are her kids? how did her husband die?). I wrote 7 sides, no skipping lines. Maybe my best commentary yet. I'm aiming at a 6.

[JulesFrancophile]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering which did you write your commentary on? The prose piece or the poetry piece? I want to know what you argued because the people at my school are acting kinda wierd over the topics please share your thought!

[Chantale]

Hey,

I did the prose, it was extracted from Polar Breath, but I don't remember the author. I thought it was pretty easy to write about, lots of literary techniques to discuss. I didn't even look at the poem haha.

[Sierra.tehe]

The Minority poem was so boring, I had like.. nothing to talk about because I wasnt quite sure what to make of the last lines...

My teacher said that she hated the poem and the prose for HL, and she found them really boring so she was going to write to the IB and tell them to not give any more crap poems

It just seemed too simple... And it was so long!!

[Abrahamk]

I'm in TZ1, and I chose the prose (Polar Breath). Normally, I choose the poem immediately since I love poetry, and when I first read the prose I thought there was no way I'd be doing it. However, after spending a few minutes on the poem, I realized that I wouldn't be able to write for 2 hours about it, so I immediately switched to prose and never looked back.

I mentioned many literary devices: figurative language [including imagery (kinaesthetic {feels her fingers are cold and blue}, visual {ice}, auditory {black dog howling}), diction, metaphor], structure, punctuation, tone, mood, atmosphere, symbolism, setting, etc.

I found that the infrequent mention and appearance of birds in the passage represents lack of freedom and motion. Normally, birds are free to fly, and are not trapped; however, the passage begins with them shivering, they try to fly out of the house but hit the window, and as a result, they are used to accentuate the protagonists' lack of freedom. Not only that, but the constant image of vines/wrapping around/spirits wrapping around the house not only creates anxiety and fear within the reader, but also is analogous to how the birds can't fly, and the lack of freedom/mobility in the passage.

Also the setting is quiet interesting as it takes place in a rural town (revealed by the distance of her neighbour and the fact he is spreading manure on his garden rows). So in a sense, the setting equally helps reinforce the theme of isolation, separation and lack of freedom. Not to mention, the woman herself is alone (physically within the passage) with her cat.

Moreover, I enjoyed the surrealist aspect of the passage and the constant blurring between fantastical and ordinary elements, most notably the spirits. In the first 2 paragraphs, you can find many questions about ordinary objects and everyday life such as the birds, but in the proceeding paragraph, which introduces the supernatural spirits, there's no question and it's all short solid statements forcing the reader to accept as true. Equally, this helps establish an ominous mood and atmosphere in the passage, which is effectively emphasized by the setting.

Then, in the 4th paragraph, the author reverts back to writing about ordinary elements; no mention or spirits. However, by the 5th paragraph, it's almost 50% spirits talk/50% ordinary stuff/past memories. So I felt that throughout the first page of the passage, there is obvious juxtaposition in paragraphs, but eventually and inevitably, there occurs an amalgamation of the two (once again going back to the style of surrealism and blurring lines between reality and fantasy).

In conclusion, I wrote that it was a very intense yet unsatisfying passage it as it raises more questions than it answers (what's her involvement with the church? where are her kids? how did her husband die?). I wrote 7 sides, no skipping lines. Maybe my best commentary yet. I'm aiming at a 6.

I chose the prose as well. As a matter of fact, I didn't even look at the poem because I knew that this passage would give me plenty to talk about. For the most part, my thesis was essentially the same: confinement through being stuck in the past (predominantly the husband's death and its association with the winter season and inflicting memories on the speaker). Ultimately I saw the speaker never being able to come to terms with the past and essentially would be stuck forever in it. I also chose to talk about the passage and its richness with imagery through the senses.

As for the birds, I had a different interpretation... I wrote that the speaker longed for the comfort and solace they had, being able to chirp to one another and be at peace. I also picked up on the contrast between warm/cold imagery such as the furnaces the birds were metaphorically fueled by and the clothing/hot tea the speaker uses to try and find comfort in when everything is coming down on her. I also picked up on a shift with the paragraph beginning with 'they were in my house too,' or something of that sort.

As for the church, I wrote that even religion could not give her any sort of peace, as the steeple or whatever was ravaged by the winter weather, being skewed like powerlines. Was really iffy on that argument.

I wrote 7 sides as well. Beautiful passage.

[intothesea]

TZ2- minority

I thought it was pretty easy, I was expecting some hardcore poem I couldn't understand but this was pretty straight-forward.

I failed Paper 2 though. (forgot the author for a man for all seasons) !!!