‘Hieroglyphics’ - Anne DonovanElements of the Story

You must refer to the story’s theme or central concerns in your essay.

Theme

Style

Humour?Imagery?Descriptive language?

Narrative Style

Who tells the story?Language

Dialect or Standard English?

Formal or informal?

PlotWhat happens?

Setting Where does it take place?When does it

take place?

Characterisation

What are the characters like?

How are they presented?

How do they interact with other characters?

How do they develop / change?

StructureHow is the story put together?

In pairs:

Discuss and fill in the A3 sheet you have been given in as much detail as possible to analyse the elements of the story.

You should each fill in a sheet.

Narrative Style – who tells the story?

The story is narrated by Mary in the first person, looking back on her experiences.

She narrates the story in the Glaswegian dialect of Scots, in a chatty and conversational tone. Mary does not use Standard English grammar, and she uses Scots vocabulary and phonetic spellings to reflect her pronunciation of words.

Mary’s narrative reflects the way she speaks and the fact that she has problems reading and writing Standard English.

Narrative Style – who tells the story?

The narrative viewpoint is crucial to the story as it allows the reader to see events through Mary’s eyes and so we get a clear sense of what her experience is like.

This means that we connect with her more and feel more sympathy with her because we can understand what she is going through.

Plot – what happens?

Mary is dyslexic (although this term is never explicitly used) and is repeatedly let down by her mother and her teachers who, even when they are nice to her, do not do anything to help her to overcome her problems.

Mr Kelly, however, bullies and belittles Mary for her difficulties, causing her to be isolated by her peers and making her unhappy.

At the end Mary is proud of her work (a story written in hieroglyphics) showing that she has overcome the negativity of others, will find ways of dealing with her problems and can become a confident individual.

Setting

The story is set in Glasgow – Mary refers to Drumchapel, where a huge housing estate was built in the 1950s to house 34,000 people as part of the Glasgow overspill policy. It is an area which has well-known social problems.

The story is set in the fairly recent past – Mary refers to watching ‘Home and Away’.

Characterisation

What are the characters like?

Mary: It is clear that Mary is dyslexic, but no-one has taken the time or made the effort to test her or help her properly.

She is frustrated by her difficulties but enjoys her time in primary school (little jobs, no demands) but makes no progress with literacy.

High school - bullied by Mr Kelly due to her difficulties and isolated because of this upsetting.

Characterisation

How are they presented?

Mary: despite her difficulties, Mary is a very astute and articulate narrator. She is aware of the way that others see her. She uses clever and vivid imagery to convey her story - Mary is anything but ‘daft’ and the ‘poor wee soul’ her head teacher describes her as.

Characterisation

How are they presented?

The Support for Learning teacher: grew frustrated with Mary, thought she wasn’t trying hard enough.

Primary teachers: pleasant to her (‘dead nice tae me’)

P7 teacher: gave her little jobs and tasks to keep her busy

None of them made any real effort to help her to overcome her problems with reading writing.

CharacterisationHow are they presented?

Mary’s mother: unsupportive and dismissive of her; thinks that Mary’s problems are due to lack of effort: “She's lazy, ye mean” - makes us pity Mary more.

Teachers in High School: feel sorry for her, but make no effort to try to teach her – they believe she is incapable of learning anything. They give her menial tasks to do to keep her busy.

CharacterisationHow are they presented?Headteacher in High School: patronises her, talking about her as if she, and the rest of the class, cannot hear him:

“She's a poor wee soul but she tries very hard.”He thinks she’s not capable of learning anything and that she is not worth teaching.

CharacterisationHow are they presented?Mr Kelly: ridicules Mary due to her literacy difficulties. He seems to enjoy humiliating and ridiculing her in front of her peers. He is a bully.

Mary’s peers: they react to Mr Kelly’s bullying by isolating Mary so they don’t get picked on too.

CharacterisationHow do they interact with other characters?Mary is very astute in her recognition of other people’s attitudes to her. She has not told anyone about the visual difficulties she has processing words – why not?She realises that Mr Kelly’s behaviour is bullying, but she does not react angrily to his taunts.

CharacterisationHow do they develop / change?

Mary refuses to let Mr Kelly defeat her. Instead of being beaten down emotionally by his bullying behaviour, she stands up to him by writing her story in hieroglyphics, putting a smiley face on it and placing it on top of the pile.This shows that she can overcome her difficulties and be a confident individual.She recognises that everyone is different / has different abilities (different handwriting on essays).

StructureThe story is told in retrospect as Mary looks back on her school career through primary and up to the first year of high school.

Mary’s recollection of other characters’ exact wording shows the significant effect which their comments have had on her over the years.

The story’s climax / ending is Mary’s triumph over her difficulties and bullying by writing her story in hieroglyphics, something which she realises she is good at.

Language

•The story is narrated by Mary in the first person, using the Glaswegian dialect of Scots.

•She uses a chatty and conversational tone, using Scots vocabulary and phonetic spellings to reflect her pronunciation of words.

•In contrast, the teachers use Standard English grammar and spelling, complex vocabulary and a formal tone.

StyleImagery

•Mary likens the process of trying to read to the difficult and frustrating act of trying to catch a spider, illustrates the lack of control that Mary has over words on a page. The image shows how and frustrating she finds trying to read.

•Mr Kelly looks at the pupils like a scientist would look at a dangerous bacteria under a microscope – shows his superior attitude and how he looks down on them.

StyleImagery •The class trying to keep up with work in Mr Kelly’s class is like a frantic horse race: only a few of the most able pupils manage to keep up with him. He enjoys tormenting them. Mary is so far behind the others she does not even manage to jump over the first fence (which symbolises her literacy problems).

Race - one long sentence with several commas endless struggle of most of the class to keep up. Mary’s immediate failure - abrupt, short, one sentence paragraph.

Style

Imagery

•Mr Kelly - circus ringmaster; class - lions under his control. Tension in the class, other pupils are potentially harmful. Mr Kelly enjoys controlling them and enjoys showing off for his audience.

•Mary’s isolation – compared to being at a dance without a partner; she is missing out on friendships and fun. ‘And it wisnae nice’ - understatement. Her learning difficulty has educational and social implications.

Style

Imagery •Mary’s writing looks like scarab beetles (messy, random and unintelligible, links to title and content). The corrections are like blood - suggests how painful and demoralising writing is for Mary.

Theme?Prejudice and discrimination

There is a wide diversity in people and their abilities

Overcoming adversity

Be yourself and don’t let others put you down