Write an answer based on information found on the page you have been assigned. Try, as best you can, to connect what happens on that page to events that occur either before or after in the story. Use at least one literary term (setting, conflict, plot, irony etc.) in your answer. Quote the story at least once, but no more than 20 words, maximum, for all quotes. Identify the page number, please, as a heading before your paragraph. See my model answer for more ideas on what to do.
Write between 150 and 200 words. Bring your word processed work to class on Wednesday.
NOTE: For a page number to do, use the first letter of your first name as a guide. If your name begins with A or B, do page one. C or D, do page two. Go on through the letters in the same way (for example, if your name begins with "M" it would be page seven). Sorry, but Charlotte must not have gotten my second email with these instructions!
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Page 3
At this point in the story, “Homework,” we begin to understand the mother’s character better both through her thoughts and her conversation with her son, George. The story is told in the first person, which allows us insights into her traits. After she tells George that his great grandmother was “found as a newborn baby wrapped in a flour sack on the church steps,” she thinks to herself that it is a good thing she lives in the modern era where a woman has more choices and doesn’t need to stay with a man who “broke your jaw.” We already know that she “works from home” (on page one) and, later on in the story, we are now prepared to better understand her wish to be free that perhaps leads to her suggestion that George write about a divorced family. Her unhappiness shows us an internal conflict, one that George is largely unaware of since most of this information is only known to readers through the first person narration.—169 words
Page 1
The physical setting chosen by Helen Simpson for her fiction writing “ Homework” in the kitchen with the son sitting at the table pleading for help with his three page English homework is very useful to create a homey atmosphere. When she describes how the mother serves the tea time snack “peeled Satsuma” with “any stray threads of pith removed” we can imagine how she is taken by her son. She first tells him off for procrastinating but gives in and supplies ideas for a story about a divorce of his own parents. He is not to keen on the idea of telling a fictitious story. But having no choice he starts to make notes. As the story unfolds the reader can't help it, but to see a combination of the mothers own youth experiences and an upcoming separation from the boys' father. Mixed in are her dreams for her future. She is preparing him for unavoidable events.
Page 7
On this page George’s mother continues to helping him to write homework about his parents’ divorce. The author gives us a better understanding of George’s mother character by giving her voice to describing memories from her unstable childhood, family affairs, and showing emotions she lived through (pages 3-6). She isn’t happy with her current life. “The mum wants a new start. She wants to see the world!” she continues. Probably Mrs. Blincoe (a woman she and her grandmother cleaned house for) impressed her with a freedom and independence, stating after her husband’s death: “Now I’m free to do what I want to do.” That’s when a conflict arises. George neither wants to write a fictional story that looks really convincing, nor does he have any of his own. He is concern about Mr. Mottram questioning its authenticity. Though, his mother reassures him that “He [Mr. Mottram ] should be interested in it as a piece of writing.” Like Shakespeare’s “’A Midsummer Night’s Dream’” where mythological characters played main roles in his masterpiece. George is not wholly convinced about her persuasion, but “incapable of coming up with an alternative” surrenders to his mother’s diving into unrealistic (?) imaginations. -196 words
Page 6
On this page, the mom still trying to give her son an idea what to write in his homework and a bit of a flash back when she was a kid like her son. And then they went back to their first subject she suggested about” the divorce”. This brings her son to ask her why her Aunt Sharon gets divorced. And Aunt Valerie got the best job and money. You can tell that the author is a bit jealous towards her sister lives, even though she is trying to hide it from her kid. The irony of this story is people are not contented of what they have; or some achievements and success always has exchange sacrifices. She exaggeratedly said “they’ve sold their soul”, when she is justifying to her son that Aunt Valerie got all those material things because she work those” ridiculous hours”. Since the previous page, mom is pushing the idea of divorce as a subject for her son homework: this tells us that she is unhappy about her marriage. She is telling him all the consequences when parents get divorced.
187 words
Page Seven
George struggle with himself he feels that he has to make a decision that will change him. On the sixth page he stated to enjoy the English assignment because they were talking about his Auntie Valerie who was rich. As stated by George “Her family goes on the best holidays and they’ve got an Audi and a BMW.” He really sounded excited when he talks about Auntie Valerie. The reader can feel his excitement is his expressions. On the next page his mother drags him to stretch the truth. George doesn’t feel comfortable with lying to his teacher, Mr. Mottram. “What if he asks me?” George’s fear is understandable as all children get scared of getting caught with a lie. But, his mother tries to make his son feel better with himself. She tries to explain that Mr. Mottram is not “psychotherapist so he can’t really tell if you are lying or not. Poor George feels trapped between his mother and teacher.
-162 words
Page 3
This story tells us about a mother's and son's conversation, when the mother tries to help her son to do his English homework. During their discussion the woman remembers about her parents' hard lives--how her father "slept wrapped in old newspaper on bench along the Embankment." She tells George how his great-grandmother was found "as a newborn baby wrapped in a flour sack on the church steps." George asks his mother where was he born, although he knows it "perfectly well." He likes to listen the story about himself because his mom tells it with love, "You were a lovely mild baby, like a dewdrop." The tenderness and warmth sound in mother's words, "when you cried it just made me laugh." We can see that the mother loves her "broad-shouldered boy", takes care of him, and always ready to help him.
144 words
Page 4
In this page,George’s “Homework” starts to make the narrator reminisce her own “Life-changing events”. During the conversations between the mother and son, the reader continuing follows her and knew those miserable family events such as “Go bankrupt”, “Skip the country ”, and especially the fatal incident “the death of a parent”. Those foreshadowings let the reader understand more about the serious sharp pains as “step onto the tines of a garden fork, the solid shaft handle rear up hitting the face”, which the mother experienced in her childhood and was “get by till middle age”. I can really feel how pain it is! It did paint some grief and helpless imagines to the reader.In the end of this page, the mother also gives out a hint to both George and the reader that there may come up another life-changing event: Divorce. -146 words
At this point of story, “Homework,” we begin to understand George’s character better through his ambitious thought that, “I want a BMW when I get a job.” George also mentioned Auntie Valerie’s luxurious life as,”Her family goes on best holidays and they’ve got an Audi and a BMW.” Her mother’s character was opposite to George as she said those luxurious life was earned by “working those ridiculous hours”, and “they’ve sold their souls.” She wants to make clear to his son about the importance of togetherness of families by comparing Aunt Valerie’s family and her family. She spent her time with her grandma by, “go along to help with the floors”, and by doing her homework. She stated about the auntie’s family that, “they all manage to get together as a family is when they go on some expensive safari thousands of miles away.” She was also trying to explain that our relations our sinking with the floods of extravaganza and burning with the fire of advancement.
-167 words
page 3 is about the mother and her son's conversation, when the mother tries to help her son to do his English homework. in the middle of the page the mother remembers her son about her parent's hard lives and how her father "slept wrapped in old newspaper on bench along the Embankment." She tells her son how his grandmother was found "as a newborn baby wrapped in a flour sack on the church steps." George asks his mother where was he born, even tho he knows it perfectly well."I kept you beside me in basket all the time for months and You were a lovely mild baby, like a dewdrop." George smiled a ratified smile and ask his mother if he cried."yes ,but it was more like the roar of a lion." the mother loves her son and she is always ready to help not only with his homework but with his life problems.
Page 3
In this page, the story is starting to go into the “Event that Changed Your Life”. Firstly, I strongly believed that George is a clever but lazy boy. He hasn’t finished his homework until the last minute. He clearly knows that his mother will help him to complete his homework, so he says,” I can’t do it”. Maybe he wants to test what her reaction is. ( Page 1) As he was expected, his mother stopped what she was doing and asked what happened. At last, George shows “a beaming smile of relief”. Through the “Homework” incident and their conversation (George and his mother), It mentions that George Lives in an ordinary family with love. He is taken care very well by his mother. When he was a baby, “like a dewdrop”, he was kept beside her “in a basket all the time”. As a result, he couldn’t imagine how hard lives are in his great-grandmother generations. He couldn’t feel their struggles life. Thus, He has no experiences to “Event that Changed Your Life”.
-175 words
Page 6
Kimberly Kozak
The more I read “Homework”, the more I believe that the mother is speaking largely about the reality of her getting divorced but also a lot I perceived as hypothetical. When she speaks about living with his “father and little brother and visiting at weekends” (page 6), I think she is trying to get George to think of writing ideas because it appeared she cared a lot of this boy. She wants to help the boy with his homework “Alright then, lets think”(page 3). The boy appears to be quite young and naive. I think the father was talking about domestic beer, “Ah, domestic bliss”. At this point in the story it appears the mother is also trying to educate him about how it will be more difficult to cope with divorced parents. She also points out, her sister Sharon doesn’t spend much time with her family unless they are “on some expensive safari thousands of miles away”. The boy throughout the story struggles with his family issues, but finds playing football helps get him through his struggle. The mother also uses this opportunity of helping her son as a way of talking to him about their family situation.
-199 words
Page2
This is a typical interesting screen. The son, George, struggled how to write his essay. Actually he wanted his mother’s help, but he did not ask directly for it. He chose to sitting at the kitchen table, and moaned again and again, such as “It’s just so hard”. That wined his mother’s sympathy. His mother sounded like she was a willing help friend to her son. She did not chatter about why George did not finish it in his Easter holidays, and how come he left this to the last minute. She developed his mind how his friends’ ideas about this homework. When she realized the topic “An Event That Changed Your Life” was beyond any thirteen-year-olds teenager’s understanding, she decided to do the “homework” for her son. She made an excuse for her thought--- this is only once and her son should know why and how this thing going to be. This is a thought-provoking phenomenon, deserving to discuss. When the teachers give an extremely difficult task for the students to fulfill, do they want to encourage that the students seek the help from their parents and to finish it together? (190 words)
Page 4
At this point, the character of the story, “Homework,” mother: helping her son to do his assignment by giving ideas (using hers imaginations) of the sophisticated life; letting him to see the world at the different angle. At first she tells him about her family- that are,” scattered far and wide” (on page three). She seems to me a very lovely and caring mother. She suggests to George, to finish his homework before dinner, that he can watch his match after, George’s mother: “I am doing specially for seven o’clock, because I know you like all that warmup chat beforehand,” – though George had all spring break to do his assignment. His mother creates and keeps telling him about the life experiences of herself and her family (on page four). She mentioned how from a, “dewdrop baby,” George becomes to a “broad- shoulder,” boy. She set up a warm-family atmosphere, by showing herself as a great mother- though through the story she doesn't seem to be happy nor had a good childhood.
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