Question Constellation Sign up for free OCR · GCSE · English Literature · Higher
Characters dealing with time and change
Question 5: My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley and Yardsale by Arnold Wesker. For part a, candidates focus only on the printed extracts.
Compare how these two extracts present characters dealing with time and change. You should consider: the situations and experiences faced by the characters; how the characters react to the situations and experiences; how language and dramatic features create effects.
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Marking points
- 1 Compares both extracts on time and change.
- 2 Explains relevant contexts of past, present, relationships and identity.
- 3 Uses references from both extracts.
- 4 Analyses language and dramatic features.
Full-mark answer
A high-level answer would compare Doris's painful movement away from a family home with Stephanie's self-questioning at the yardsale. It would use details such as Solitaire, the car horn, snow, time checks, discarded objects and the photo album, and analyse dramatic focus, symbolism, monologue and rhetorical questions.
Why this answer loses marks
Both extracts are about characters remembering the past.
This misses how context, relationships and dramatic symbols turn memory into a presentation of time and change.