The Lesson and Mid-term Break Essay -- English Literature

Introduction to The Lesson and Mid-term adjournThe Lesson tells the story of a 10 year old boy who has lost his fix in the epoch of school time. It goes on the offer hes trappedand although he feels grief for the remnant of his father he realisesthat he can use the death to admit the bullies fist.Mid-Term Break is about the loss of a comrade. It goes on to saythat life goes on even though he has lost his brother and he witnessesthings he does not normally experience (his father crying).Mid-Term BreakMeaningThe meaning of Mid-Term Break is to tell the story of an accidentinvolving a young child and a vehicle. He tries to explain how lifegoes on and the death of the boys brother doesnt mean that lifestops. It goes on to show that because his brother has died certainthings happen that he doesnt usually see I met my father crying and Old men standing up to shake my slip away. It ends with the powerful andchilling zephyr a four foot box, a foot for every year This shows thatthe b oy was very young and had a small coffin because he was only 4years of age. expressionThe poems structure is very neat and very tidy. He chooses to write inthree line stanzas because this allows the poem to flow easily andallows the stanza below it the plug in in with its predecessor. By alsohaving three line stanzas helps the last line have more of a punchfeeling because it breaks the mould.Heaney avoids using hoarfrost in this piece because we usually associaterhyme with happiness and glee. Because of this conclude Heaney purposelymakes this poem sad and hopeless.AnalysingThe mood changes throughout the poem. At the mother the mood is sombre,sad and mysterious but when it reache... ...death.Pride, like a goldfish, flashed a sudden fin we can imagine thegoldfish swimming in their bowl, perhaps set in the cheerfulnessshine on awindowsill. The sun catches a goldfish at a certain angle, and thegold of its scales shortly shines brightly. The loudspeaker system, caught inthe sun shine of all this attention and sympathy, suddenly feels pride give out in him.At no point in this poem does the speaker express sadness at the lossof his father. However, he is aware that he should feel something, andhis shame at the lack of feeling is in impinge with his relief andhis pride. What is uppermost in the speakers mind is the confinedlittle humankind of the school (rather like the shining prison of thegoldfish bowl). His life is centred on school, the bullying, his otherschool-mates.I think the bitter lesson he learns is about his hold self-centredness.