English Mid- term exam: Part A
Answer @Q1:- The paragraphs #02 (Bright red, they werenot wearing it) and #04 [in those dayssprouting from my lapel) can easily lay claim to be the most descriptive paragraphs in this short composition.
Here, the author takes on the popular ritual of “Poppy Day” (on November 11 every year) head-on, and puts forward his view that our wearing of a poppy (artificial and factory made) serves only to mock the dead soldiers (who died in the intense fighting in Flanders field, Belgium in World War I). Officially, the poppies are worn as a sign of our remembrance of the valor of those who died in fighting but as war itself is a huge waste of human life, the wearing of the poppy is tantamount to mocking the hundreds of the soldiers who died in the battle, whether friend or foe.
Criticism and ridicule of a tradition like “Poppy Day” which has continued for decades and has strong patriotic emotions attached to it, is a difficult and risky job. Hence the presence of the descriptive paragraphs. Detailed descriptions make it easy for the reader to visualize the items or situations being described. This creates an effect of the author being near and close to the reader, both spatially and socially, and of sincerity.
Answer@Q2: The subject of this essay is such that, it will fail to convince if written in the third person, with the author assuming the role of an “impartial observer’. Writing in the first person makes it possible for the author to connect to the reader. The reader knows that the author is qualified to discuss poppy day or Flanders Field because his own father was a victim-not physically but at the sub-consciousness level.
Answer@Q3“Bright red they were, with that particularly silly green leaf out of the top – it was never part of the original Lady Haig appeal – and not one dared to appear on screen without it. Do these pathetic men and women know how they mock the dead? I trust that Jon Snow has maintained his dignity by not wearing it.”
Robert Fiske first moots the idea of the poppy becoming more and more a fashion appendage in this paragraph. In 1926, Dorothy Haig opened her Poppy factory where help is given to injured and disabled soldiers of World War I. The factory exists to this day and manufactures more than 30 million poppies per year. Over the years, the manufactured poppy became more bright red and then each poppy had a small green leaf attached to it. This is not befitting to the actual reason of poppy day, which is to pay our tribute to the thousands of soldiers who died. The green leaf makes it look silly and instead of a sign of appreciation to the dead soldiers, the overall picture is that of mocking the dead, as per Firske.
Jon Snow is a famous journalist and presenter of television shows. He has the same view of Poppy day as Firske. He has named this entire business of wearing a poppy on the lapel on ‘Poppy Day’ as “poppy-fascism”.
Answer @Q4: The message is that the act of sticking a poppy in the lapel, which was once worn in remembrance to the war dead in Flanders Field, has now been denigrated into a fashion. Young people today eagerly wear their poppies, each poppy a little more ‘artistic’ then the other but most of them are ignorant about the reason why they wear the flower on November 11th of every year. Some of the poppies today come with a little green leaf, which makes it and the wearer look silly. All this is just mocking the dead and buried in Flanders Field, and insults their memories. People should now stop this tradition of wearing a poppy.
Answer@Q5: The intended audience here is the Upper Middle Class who are the main readers of the Independent. It can be seen from Firske’s essay itself that notwithstanding his plain speaking, he is by no means completely free of snobbish airs. The audience for his work is not the MP (House of Commons) as he professes his view that a MP is not much different from the uneducated or semi-educated village dweller. It is the intellectual middle class that his essay
targets and they are his intended audience.
Part B
I find it amazing that human beings are satisfied by living as they do, ever ignorant of the basic truths. We hardly know anything about us. For example where did we come from and why did we come from wherever we came? Who sent me here? For example, imagine a country pub where on one wall we have a complete map of the land mass of the earth. Did someone throw darts and decide where we are supposed to go? However, strangely people do not understand and appear least interested if I ask. For example to such a question, a good friend of mine, a lady told me that I think too much. Well maybe I do and maybe I do not but I am still surprised.
HURRICANE.
It was at about 14.00 hours that the winds first came. Then there was this incredible rainfall. We must have registered about 300mm of rainfall that day. All of us were soaked to the skin and visibility was practically non existent. This was Hurricane Bossy starting right in time as the weather office had said. I caught hold of the central post and lied flat on the ground. My college project this week was ‘something energetic to do with the weather”. When I had heard that Bossy was on its way, I put up the central post and decided to write an essay. I thought and thought and then the idea struck me. I would write an essay called “Five minutes in the Hurricane’s Eye”. That, is exactly what I am doing trying to do now. Getting drenched and waiting for the eye.
