CSEC English

Hello there! It’s time for us to move on to the poems on your syllabus (20182020). We start with Sylvia Plath’s Mirror. And since we want you to become writers yourselves, we take a look at short story writing. Enjoy your CSEC page!

ENGLISH B— Poetry (2018-2020) Today’s poem for discussion is Mirror by Sylvia Plath. Comparison with other poems that contrast the male and the female point of view.

Your CSEC syllabus has several poems that contrast the woman’s point of view with the man’s. Plath’s poem discusses the way women suffer because society places so much emphasis on physical beauty. Compare this poem with Olive Senior’s Birdshooting Season, in which we see again how the female point of view is so sensitive while the male point of view is tough and macho (and dominant). Similarly, Elma Mitchell’s A Stone’s Throw shows us a woman who is ‘roughed up’ by the male religious establishment: the Pharisees are a bit like Plath’s mirror—totally without feeling, only seeing the woman’s blemishes (her adultery), not the inner potential for goodness that Jesus sees in her. Comparison of Plath’s poem with either of these should make for an interesting class discussion.

STORY WRITING

Let’s write a story entitled “The Birthday Gift”. Start with an idea: “I’ll write about when my little brother got a cheap vase for Mum and it disintegrated when she put water in it.”

1 Write a plan: ● How we went down town and selected the gift ● How Dale wrapped it and designed the card ● How Mum was so surprised, and Dale so pleased ● How Mum put flowers and water in the vase ● How Dale found the heap of sand that had been the vase ● How Mum comforted him.

2

Decide who will narrate the story. THE GIFT.

Dale was just six, but big enough to understand that birthdays are times for giving gifts. He proudly took the money from his money tin, and announced that he wanted to get a gift for Mum’s birthday. My brother took him down town on his bike, and helped him select something that Mum would like.

The two of them came back an hour or so later, and Dale grinned broadly as he showed us a lovely little vase he had bought. “Now I’m going to make a card,” he announced, “and I want to wrap this vase up in some pretty paper.

Dale could hardly wait for Mum to get home. As soon as she came in at the front door, he ran to her with his parcel: “Happy birthday, Mum. I got this for you all by myself!”

Mum was thrilled and surprised. “Wow, Dale! That’s a super gift! Come, give me a big hug!” After praising her son to the skies, she sent him to pick a couple of flowers so that she could put them in water in the birthday vase. He trotted off, beaming with pride.

The household settled down to the normal routine—eating dinner and doing the dishes. Suddenly there was a howl of anguish from Dale. “Whatever is the matter?” asked Mum, rushing to see if he had injured himself.

There on the table where the precious vase had been was a heap of wet sand with the two flowers resting on top. Evidently the person who had made the vase had not baked the clay, so it had simply disintegrated with the water inside it.

Poor little Dale was devastated, but Mum quickly took control of the situation. “Well I think it was the nicest vase in the world, and I think that Dale is the most wonderful little boy in the world,” she comforted.

Dale rubbed his eyes.

Mum pressed her advantage: “So how about some ice cream to celebrate?” With that she trotted us all down to the local ice cream shop for cones. Dale sobbed for a while, but quickly forgot his disappointment when he saw the double scoop cone of his favourite chocolate chip ice cream.

Dale is now a big man with children of his own, but Mum never forgot the lovely gift that lasted for exactly six minutes and caused so many tears! I believe she still has that home-made birthday card tucked away in some box of treasures..

Check the story carefully. In addition to sticking to the plan, the writer has inserted some direct speech to make the story more vivid. Notice, too, that each time the story takes a new turn, the writer begins a new paragraph.

There’s nothing like practice. See if you can write a story starting with an idea like the one we had here.