Choose the question you are going to answer – highlight what you have to do… Compare how a character is presented in ‘Medusa’ and one other poem from ‘Character and Voices’ (36 marks) Spend a maximum of 5 minutes on this

Compare how a character is presented in ‘Medusa’ and one other poem from ‘Character and Voices’ (36 marks) Compare: similar or different Character: the person the poem is talking about/the person talking in the poem Presented: how they are shown to us

Now what? 1.Look for 3 main areas to compare for each poem so that you will write 6 PEEL paragraphs in total. 2.Each paragraph should alternate between the two poems (see example) 3.Remember to give yourself 5 minutes to plan your response, next is an example plan: Spend a maximum of ten minutes on this

‘Medusa’Similar or different?‘The River God’ Tone: bitter and angry ‘as though my thoughts hissed and spat on my scalp’ becomes tragic and self- pitying: ‘Wasn’t I fragrant and young? Look at me now’ Similar AND different Cheerful: ‘I throw them up now and then in the spirit of clowning’ Imagery: ‘I’m foul mouthed now, foul tongued, yellow fanged.’ Similar Both use foul imagery to describe themselves ‘I may be smelly and I may be old’ Rhythm/rhyme: use of enjambment- conversational but use of end stops and questions shows the different feelings she has DifferentMostly rhyming couplets, some enjambment. Rhyme creates light- hearted tone which makes the poem more sinister shows the spite he feels

Next: Start writing your brief introduction: This essay will compare how ‘Medusa’ and ‘The River God’ present character using similar and different methods. Spend a maximum of 25 minutes on this section

‘Medusa’Similar or different?‘The River God’ Tone: bitter and angry ‘as though my thoughts hissed and spat on my scalp’ becomes tragic and self- pitying: ‘Wasn’t I fragrant and young? Look at me now’ Similar AND differentCheerful: ‘I throw them up now and then in the spirit of clowning’ Now look at how you could write the first 2 PEELs for your essay using your first points ‘Medusa’ is written in an angry and bitter tone which is shown in the following quotation: “as though my thoughts hissed And spat on my scalp’ This example presents Medusa as an angry and bitter character by using a simile to show she has thoughts that hiss. The reader can infer that her thoughts sound like a snake hissing which gives the impression that they are angry and dangerous. On another level, this implies that the character has evil thoughts as the biblical symbol of a snake represents the evil of the devil from the story of ‘Adam and Eve’ who were manipulated by a snake. Although quite literally the snakes could represent the actual snakes Medusa was cursed with instead of hair, which gives an indication of how she looks, the assonance of ‘hiss’ alongside the plosive onomatopoeia of ‘spat’ serve as indications of her fury and anger in her situation.

By contrast, whilst ‘The River God’ also uses tone to show the character’s feelings the tone is somewhat cheerful and excited: “I throw them up now and then in the spirit of clowning’ The impression this quotation shows is that the River God enjoys having people swim in him. The phrase ‘spirit of clowning’ implies that he is a jokey character who likes to ‘get in the spirit of things’ by throwing people up and down in his water. He clearly gets enjoyment from this action, however, it is preceded by the line ‘… they take a long time drowning’ from which the reader can infer that he actually likes to throw the people up and down in the water to murder them. The fact that he likes killing them and enjoys ‘clowning’ around with their bodies as he does this adds a sinister tone to the poem and presents his character as murderous and cruel. Although both poems present their characters using tone, ‘Medusa’ has an angry tone whereas ‘The River God’ has a cheerfully sinister tone to show the character. Now comment on the other poem and use comparative connectives Link back to the question

What next? Write the rest of your response using your plan to guide you End with a brief conclusion saying how the poems compare Check your work to avoid little mistakes Spend 5 minutes on this