Narrative, Structure, Characters
- Created by: Jasmine2157
- Created on: 27-05-15 15:22
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- My Polish Teacher's Tie
- Structure
- Exposition
- Carla's job: introduced
- Carla's background: introduced
- Inciting Incident
- Polish pen-friend meeting
- Rising Action
- Carla + Stefan write to each other
- Stefan writes her a poem
- Head announces his visit
- Climax
- Carla worries how Stefan will react when he finds out her job
- Carla overhears Valerie being rude about him + understands that he feels out of place
- Dénouement
- Carla + Stefan meet
- Carla rediscovers her roots
- Exposition
- Characters
- Carla Carter
- Part-time school dinner lady, basic wage, single mother, teen daughter, Polish mother
- Was bilingual, English father stopped her learning Polish at age 6
- Lets Steve assume she's a teacher (thinks he wouldn't bother write to 'only' a part-time canteen assistant - white lie)
- Lack of self-esteem, very aware of her low wage + status
- Covers up much of her social self-doubt with assertive-ness, unconvention-al that she would respond to an announce-ment made to teachers
- line 135: Carla thinks Valerie + her kids are ignorant + small-minded
- Feels protective of Steve when Valerie talks about him ('looks like a boy'), rediscovered Polish roots through him
- 'I like your tie': asserts solidarity with Steve
- Stefan (Steve) Jeziorny
- Neutral about Carla's job; expresses simple pleasure that she's his pen-friend
- Polish teacher looking for English pen-friend so he can improve English
- Carla's writing: chatty + informal
- His writing: formal + polite (as he's not native English + due to Polish culture)
- Valerie Kenward
- Ignorant + intolerant hostess to Stefan
- Complains
- Tea/buns/ser-vice
- Steve's accent, passion for poetry, inability to pronounce names of English poets properly
- The Head
- Seen through Carla: bumbling, bit foolish, insincere
- Always just 'the head': doesn't relate to others personally but to their roles (contrast to Stefan)
- Carla Carter
- Narrative
- Informal, colloquial language confirms Carla's ordinariness
- Carla's perspective: her position + views of teachers at school
- 1st person
- Allows reader to empathise with her
- Her views mould perceptions of reader
- Simple sentences
- Present tense - it tells a story
- Minimal dialogue used: most of Carla's opinions are thoughts
- Structure
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