1. GCSE Literature Paper 2 Telling Tales Anthology
Chemistry
By Graham Swift

2. Key themes and ideas Family Relationships across generations Conflict
Death and Grief
Growing up
Emotional bonds
Hereditary
Key themes and ideas

3. Exploring the dismissive treatment of older generations
Exploring the notion that society dismisses the emotional capabilities of children
Exploring society’s inability to address the process of grief – for adults and children
Contextual Factors

4. Language Methods Extended Metaphor of the title ‘Chemistry’ Metaphor
Symbolism/simile
“The pond…exposed…like a miniature sea”
“invisible cord”
Metaphor
“The voyages were trouble free”
Symbolic moment
“The motor cut. The launch wallowed, sank”
(enhanced by use of short sentences)
Animalistic verbs
“Ralph suddenly barked”
“his hands clenched on his knife and fork”
“seizing Grandfather by the throat”
Language Methods

5. Language Methods Metaphor Alliteration “..a miniature home”
“the scope of his sad symmetry”
Emotive Adverbs
“We strode, resolutely, back to the table”
Metaphor
“..a miniature home”
(the shed)
Vocabulary to create an ‘Ogre’ image of Ralph
“The house where Ralph lorded it, tucking into bigger and bigger meals, was a menacing place”.
Links back to extended metaphor of title
“Chemistry is the science of change…Anything can change”
Language Methods

6. Language Methods Emotive adjectives Simile
“like a stray cat”
(feelings of Grandfather)
Emotive adjectives
“She looked trapped and helpless”
(mother)
Animalistic lexis
“lurching frame…..enveloping her..”
Metaphor
“infinite stick of rock..”
Imagery
“..as if the house were plunging under water …”
Language Methods

7. Language methods Visual imagery
“hard, dazzling, spangled with early frost”
Setting – symbolic
“…tidied the overgrown parts of the garden and clipped back the trees”
Symbolic image
“Beneath its surface was a bottle of acid and the wreck of my launch”
1st person viewpoint and past tense – confiding/personal
“And I remember Mother’s face as she got up….”
seasons/leaves -symbolic
“two willows turned yellow and dropped and the water froze your hands”
Language methods

8. Family –assumption of loyalty
Family bonds
“It seemed to me that Grandfather’s face before me was only a cross section from some infinite stick of rock, from which, at the right point, Mother’s face and mine might also be cut”
Family Conflict
“Grandfather….deliberately ate slowly to provoke Ralph”
“You’re ruining our meal – do you want to take yours to the shed?”
Family –assumption of loyalty
“I thought: now we are going to face Ralph, now we are going to show our solidarity”
Top Quotes (themes)

9. Grief
“…that my childish assumptions were only a way of allaying my own grief”
“..she would break into uncontrollable tears and she would clasp me for long periods without letting go, as if afraid I might turn to air”
“We lived for each other – and for those two unfaded memories..”
Top Quotes

10. Top Quotes (cyclical structure)
Exposition
“As it moved it seemed that it followed an actual existing line between Grandfather, myself and Mother, as if Grandfather were pulling us toward him on some invisible cord”
Resolution
“..the launch was still travelling over to him, unstoppable, unsinkable, along that invisible line”.
Top Quotes (cyclical structure)

11. How do writers present family relationships in ‘Chemistry’ and in one other story from Telling Tales?
Write about:
Some of the family relationships that are presented in the two stories
How writers present these relationships by the ways they write
Question

12. Mini Writing/Discussion Tasks
Characterisation (SQI): How has the writer used language to characterise Ralph as an aggressive imposter? Structure: Focus on the opening of a story and the final paragraph How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? Consider: what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning and why he revisits this in the story’s resolution Discuss the significance of the following: “Chemistry is the science of change. You don’t make things in Chemistry – you change them. Anything can change”
Mini Writing/Discussion Tasks

13. Challenging Questions
How is the symbolic image of the pond – the ’miniature sea’ be connected to family bonds across generations?
What does the writer want us to consider about how we view the ageing process?
Why is it dangerous to make assumptions about the emotional intelligence of children?
What is interesting about the narrative viewpoint of this story? Why is it effective?
Which relationship do you feel is the most damaged and why?
Why has Swift characterised Ralph as a ’fairytale villain’?
Comment on Swift’s use of the ‘dash’ – what is its purpose?
Look at the use of pronouns on P4 – what is interesting and significant?
What is the ‘delicate equilibrium’ on P4? How does this link to the story’s title?
What is your interpretation of this quote on P5 – “I had a feeling of being back in that old impregnable domain which Ralph had not yet penetrated”?
Challenging Questions