Notes On A Kestrel For A Knave

 

Summary

The entire novel 'A Kestrel for a Knave' is a story about a single day in the life of protagonist, Billy Casper. The story is told from the 

third person point of view, however readers are instinctively led to consider Billy’ point of view. 

The story is set in South Yorkshire  (possibly in a mining area called Barnsley) in the. Billy’s older brother Jud works

down in the mining pits, and this is an occupation that Billy is not interested in. However the narrator leads us to believe that Billy will not escape this 'small town' fate.  For boys like Billy, there was little else to do for an occupation or career.

The novel makes use of the flashback technique to develop the story. As the novel only covers a single day, this technique helps to stretch the story by alternating between present day and filling in gaps from the past. For example, gaps such as how Billy became Kes' owner and trainer.

Billy's family unit comprises his harsh brother Jud and his apathetic mother, Mrs Casper. It is a cold and loveless home and Billy who is also not well cared for. His only solace is his kestrel, Kes;

she is the centre of his life and he spends all his time and efforts to her.

Billy’s day starts off with a sour conversation with his brother Jud and continues with his paper round for Mr Porter, who clearly believes Billy is inferior to the boys from the middle-class

Firs Hill Estate. His day continues at school, where he is humiliated by both his form

tutor, Mr Crossley, and the headmaster, Mr Gryce. After being caned for daydreaming in

assembly, he goes to his English lesson with Mr Farthing. This lesson is one of the few

positive times in his day: he is made to feel valued when he gives a talk to the class about

his kestrel. At break, he is involved in a fight which is sorted out by Mr Farthing. Billy

then goes to a PE lesson where the teacher, Mr Sugden, continues the humiliation because

Billy has no kit and cannot play football.

At lunchtime, Billy goes to feed and fly Kes – a high point in his day. He is watched by Mr

Farthing, who has gone to see him after listening to his talk in the English lesson. Billy

was supposed to place a bet at the bookmaker’s for Jud, but used the money to buy fish

and chips instead, after finding out that the horses were unlikely to win. However, the

horses do win, Jud finds out what has happened and he comes to school to find Billy.

Billy hides from him, thus missing his interview with the Youth Employment Officer.

Gryce discovers this and sends him along anyway. When the Officer asks Billy about his

hobbies, Billy is reminded of a possible threat. What would Jud do, having failed to find

him? Wanting revenge, Jud kills Billy’s beloved Kes. When Billy returns home Kes is not

there and his search for her is fruitless. He eventually finds her carcass in the bin and is

desperately upset; he seeks support from his mother but receives none. At the end of his

day – and the novel – he takes comfort in the decrepit cinema, where he has memories of his

father.

The novel ends as it started, with Billy in bed but with little to no hope and no Kestrel.

Themes

What are the main themes in the novel?

Here are some ideas:

● education 

● nature or Kes

● environment 

● school or teachers

● respect

● family life 

Example of an analysis of the theme family life

Consider what Hines tells us about family life. He does this in three main ways:

● through Billy’s family life (this is the main way)

● through the family Billy sees when he is on his paper round

● through the ‘tall story’.

The last two may not seem obvious and there may not appear to be much to say about

them, but that’s what makes them more interesting to use. They are also a good contrast

with the way Billy’s family life is presented. 

You could study Billy’s family life first of all: there are plenty of episodes to consider, for

example:

● the opening of the novel when Jud gets up (pages 1–3)

● when Billy returns from his paper round (pages 14–18)

● when Jud comes home drunk (pages 39–42)

● after Billy finds Kes dead (pages 168–75)

● the ending in the derelict cinema – look for what Billy says about his dad (pages

181–2).

Poetry Notes on 'This Is The Dark Time, My Love'

THIS IS THE DARK TIME, MY LOVE - Literary Analysis

The theme of this poem is about a people whose dreams for a better life have been

threatened by the destructive power of the ‘strange invader’.

The atmosphere of the poem is one of tension, fear, anxiety.

“Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious.” This is because of the presence

of soldiers: “all around the land brown beetles crawl about.”

Even nature is sympathetic to the cause of the people as expressed in the line” red flowers

bend their heads in awful sorrow.”

The poet’s mood is one of lamentation for the misery of his people, the instability and

sorrow brought about by the strange invader.

Imagery: The images appeal to the sense of sight and sound. They present visual

pictures and are striking.

The picture of the soldiers, “all around the land the brown beetles craw about”, in their

thick armoury, the hand covering on their backs is like beetles.

Here you hear the tramping of soldier “whose boots of steel tramp down the slender

grass”. You can also see the slender grass trampled upon and looking withered.

Figurative Language

Metaphor: All around the land brown beetles crawl about.”

 The soldiers are compared to brown beetles.

Personification: “Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow.”

The poet gives the flowers qualities of a human being – the emotion of sorrow.

Irony: “It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery.”

The words festival and carnival are indicative of joyous celebrations but what the country

is really experiencing is sorrow not joy

This Is the Dark Time My Love

by Martin Carter

This is the dark time, my love,

All round the land brown beetles crawl about.

The shining sun is hidden in the sky

Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow.

This is the dark time, my love,

It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears.

It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery.

Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious.

Who comes walking in the dark night time?

Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass?

It is the man of death, my love, the strange invader

Watching you sleep and aiming at your dream.

Poetry Notes on 'Colonial Girls School'

Literary Analysis of Colonial Girls School

Themes: Children, Education, Identity, Colonialism/Racism, Gender & Inequality

Literary Devices: Repetition, Imagery, Metaphor, Allusion

In Colonial Girls School, the poet protests against a colonial system that has tried to

emasculate and stifle natural speech, humour, physical appearance, dress, manners. She

rebels against a system that imposed educational offerings, irrelevant and meaningless.

The poet rails at cultural emasculation as she saw an attempt to transform personality, and

character, to deny self-awareness and self-hood. Stanza one lists details,

While some readers may agree with the poet’s rant against the

significance of Latin to the Caribbean mind, others will approve or

be in agreement with an exposure to Shakespeare as significant

in our lives.

 Muffled our laughter

 Lowered our voices

 Let out our hems

 Dekinked our hair

(Lines 3 - 6)

These all point to the impositions the system enforced or perpetuated.

The poet recalls an attempt to debase or devalue natural human behaviour “how our

loudness, our laughter/debased us."

The repetition as conveyed in the choric ‘chant’ throughout the poem lays emphasis on a

system that has denied self-hood, self-esteem and an indigenous cultural tradition. The

expressions, “nothing about us/nothing of our landscape/feeling nothing/finding nothing

about us” are all part of a denial of self, both mental and emotional.

The system of education-offerings of History, Geography and cultural tradition of an alien

or foreign landscape, the political and civil affairs of distant lands have been meaningless.

She asserts that these offerings are ‘mumbo-jumbo’, and irrelevant. The denial of

indigenous offerings leaves her discontented.

But the poem ends on softer note with some measure of consolation that the colonial

impostors during her schools years are now fading or disappearing for “northern eyes/in

the brighter world before us now/pale."

Colonial Girls School

by Olive Senior (1985)

Borrowed images

willed our skins pale

muffled our laughter

lowered our voices

let out our hems

dekinked our hair

denied our sex in gym tunics and bloomers

harnessed our voices to madrigals

and genteel airs

yoked our minds to declensions in Latin

and the language of Shakespeare

Told us nothing about ourselves

There was nothing about us at all

How those pale northern eyes and

aristocratic whispers once erased us

How our loudness, our laughter

debased us

There was nothing left of ourselves

Nothing about us at all

Studying: History Ancient and Modern

Kings and Queens of England

Steppes of Russia

Wheatfields of Canada

There was nothing of our landscape there

Nothing about us at all

Marcus Garvey turned twice in his grave

‘Thirty-eight was a beacon. A flame.

They were talking of desegregation

in Little Rock, Arkansas. Lumumba

and the Congo. To us: mumbo-jumbo.

We had read Vachel Lindsay’s

vision of the jungle

Feeling nothing about ourselves

There was nothing about us at all

Months, years, a childhood memorising

Latin declensions

(For our language

-‘bad talking’-

detentions)

Finding nothing about us there

Nothing about us at all

So friend of my childhood years

One day we’ll talk about

How the mirror broke

Who kissed us awake

Who let Anansi from his bag

For isn’t it strange how

northern eyes

in the brighter world before us now

Pale?

Notes on the Poem 'God's Grandeur': The Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

 

This is a sonnet and specifically an Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet. This type of sonnet has:

•an Octave (eight lines) and Sestet (six lines)

•Presents some contrast of setting/theme (For example darkness vs. light) 

•Transition occurs in the 9th line

God’s Grandeur

By Gerard Manley Hopkins (U.K. 1844-89)

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings.

Poetry Analysis: God’s Grandeur

Themes: Nature and Religion.

The poet asserts that the grandeur (splendor or greatness) of God is shown in the dependability of nature, in spite of mankind’s insensitivity towards and disconnect from nature. But the poem also indicates two aspects of that grandeur: power, with its authority, and love, with its compassion.

This poem follows the rhyming pattern of the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet, with an octave rhymed abbaabba and a sestet rhymed cdcdcd. He effectively uses this type of poetry to make a statement or draw a contrast between man’s neglect of nature (octave) and nature’s ability to replenish herself (sestet). The poet also makes effective use of alliteration, internal rhyme, and unusual imagery.

Although the language is somewhat complicated, the tone of the poem is didactic (intended to instruct). In the octave, we are being addressed by someone who begins with an assertion about God. He explains himself with similes (lines 2-3), and poses a question about man’s disobedience in line 4) supported by evidence in lines 5-8). In the sestet, he reassures his audience that his first statement remains valid, with exclamations such as ‘Oh’ and ‘ah!” adding to the realism of the lesson.

The poem is expressive of God’s presence in the natural world even through man’s exploits

have served to destroy nature and its freshness and purity. To the poet God’s grandeur is

ever pervasive, revealing itself like ‘flame from shook foil’. The word ‘flame’ is significant

as it conveys the brilliance of God as the shining light that foil gives off.

The poet employs the image of an electric charge, which develops into a flame or a light

suggesting the power of his greatness.

God’s light assumes a richness like the ‘ooze of oil crushed’ or pressed to its finest quality.

As the oil gathers strength to richness so does God’s greatness. The images are all interwoven and expanded to express the grandeur of God. In stanza 2, though man is aware of God’s greatness he still exploits through commence and industrialization, blemishing the earth and destroying the freshness of nature.

The repetition,  “generations have trod, have trod, have trod” conveys man’s persistence in his ruthless exploitation. The persistent repetition of words ‘have trod’ leading to ‘smeared and bleared, tells of the poet’s resentment or disgust at man’s actions. ‘Man’s smudge’ and ‘smell’ are expressive of a polluted and squalid environment, all due to man’s uncaring attitude. Unthinking man cares not about the destruction he leaves; he seems not aware of what he has done to nature as is expressed in the words ‘nor can food feel,’ being shod.’

The language of stanza one, lines 5-8, reveals not only disgust but a protest against man’s

ruthlessness. The poet reacts to man’s inhumanity and indignity with reasoned calmness,

a protest without rage or anger for he is consoled by nature’s presence as described in

stanza two (2).

In stanza two (2), the poet tells that God’s presence or power through nature is renewable

or invigorating inspite of man’s destruction. Nature is described as indestructible or

inexhaustible:

For all this, nature is never spent

There lives a dearest freshness deep down things.

The poem ends on a positive note, an assurance that springs from the poet’s faith as he

is convinced of the Holy Ghost’s presence with vitality and life and all that is luminous,”

“warm breaths and bright wings” .

Notes on the Poem 'Le Loupgarou': Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet

 
 

This is a sonnet and specifically an Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet. This type of sonnet has:

•an Octave (eight lines) and Sestet (six lines)

•Presents some contrast of setting/theme (For example sunset vs. night)

         •Transition occurs in the 9th line

Themes: Supernatural and Gender

 

 Le Loupgarou

A curious tale that threaded through the town

Through greying women sewing under eaves,

Was how his greed had brought ole Le Brun down,

Greeted by slowly shutting jalousies

When he approached them in white-linen suit,

Pink glasses, cork hat, and tap-tapping cane,

A dying man licensed to sell sick fruit,

Ruined by fiends with whom he’d made a bargain.

It seems one night, these Christian witches said,

He changed himself to an Alsatian hound,

A slavering lycanthrope hot on a scent,

But his own watchman dealt the thing a wound

Which howled and lugged its entrails, trailing wet

With blood back to its doorstep, almost dead.

Poetry Notes: West Indies USA by Stewart Brown

This poem is written in Free Verse and speaks to the presence of the United States in the West Indies as seen in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The poem is written from a first-person point of view and tells of the travelers`experience of different countries in the West Indies through their airports (stanza two). Nature is a major theme in the poem. Other themes include poverty and imperialism. Literary devices include similes (line 2), metaphors (line 9) and allusion (line 18).

Line 2: `baize`is the soft velvet like green material used on pool and card tables
Line 3: `pot` short for jackpot, reefrs to the most outstanding amount to be won in a casion game
Line 4-6: `Dallas...maverick`s gold ring` refers to the basketball team in the USA which would have been and possibly still is one of the most valuable and high earning basketball teams. Championship rings received by the winning team are made of the highest quality gold and worth thousands of dollars.
Line 8: `Calling card` literally identifies the bearer and istraditionally presented for introduction when making a social visit.
Line 10: `Piarco`is Trinidad`s national airport
Line 14: `Drawl`the lengthening and slowing down of speech
Line 17: `Uncle Sam` is a national personification affectionately used to refer to the United States
Line 18: `Re-enslave...island of the free`is an allusion to the Spanish conquest and colonization of the island.
Line 20-21:`America`s backyard...give me your poor`. America`s backyard is a direct reference to countries like Puerto Rico, Guam and the Phillipines who were under US rule in some way. `Give me your tired and poor` is an allusion to Emma Lazarus`famous poem about the Statue of Liberty. It also symbolizes a time in the decades after US occupation (1898) where Puerto Ricans were allowed to seek refuge in New York City after being hit by a series of natural disasters and the Great Depression.
Line 22: Introduces a series of contrasts visible in Puerto Rico as a result of the US presence. It is symbolic of the partial nature of the benefits from Puerto Rico`s affiliation with the US.
Line 29: `fools glitter`...Expresses the author`s cynical tone towards the relationship between the US and Puerto Rico. It is an allusion to the saying `All that glitters is not gold.`

Fences by August Wilson

Plot Summary

Fences is divided into two acts. Act One is comprised of four scenes and Act Two has five. The play begins on a Friday, Troy and Bono's payday. Troy and Bono go to Troy's house for their weekly ritual of drinking and talking. Troy has asked Mr. Rand, their boss, why the black employees aren't allowed to drive the garbage trucks, only to lift the garbage. Bono thinks Troy is cheating on his wife, Rose. Troy and Rose's son, Cory, has been recruited by a college football team. Troy was in the Negro Leagues but never got a chance to play in the Major Leagues because he got too old to play just as the Major Leagues began accepting black players. Troy goes into a long epic story about his struggle in July of 1943 with death. Lyons shows up at the house because he knows it is Troy's payday. Rose reminds Troy about the fence she's asked him to finish building.

Cory and Troy work on the fence. Cory breaks the news to Troy that he has given away his job at the local grocery store, the A&P, during the football season. Cory begs Troy to let him play because a coach from North Carolina is coming all the way to Pittsburgh to see Cory play. Troy refuses and demands Cory to get his job back.

Act One, scene four takes place on Friday and mirrors scene one. Troy has won his case and has been assigned as the first colored garbage truck driver in the city. Bono and Troy remember their fathers and their childhood experiences of leaving home in the south and moving north. Cory comes home enraged after finding out that Troy told the football coach that Cory may not play on the team. Troy warns Cory that his insubordinance is "strike one," against him.

Troy bails his brother Gabriel out of jail. Bono and Troy work on the fence. Bono explains to Troy and Cory that Rose wants the fence because she loves her family and wants to keep close to her love. Troy admits to Bono that he is having an affair with Alberta. Bono bets Troy that if he finishes building the fence for Rose, Bono will buy his wife, Lucille the refrigerator he has promised her for a long time. Troy tells Rose about a hearing in three weeks to determine whether or not Gabriel should be recommitted to an asylum. Troy tells Rose about his affair. Rose accuses Troy of taking and not giving. Troy grabs Rose's arm. Cory grabs Troy from behind. They fight and Troy wins. Troy calls "strike two" on Cory.

Six months later, Troy says he is going over to the hospital to see Alberta who went into labor early. Rose tells Troy that Gabriel has been taken away to the asylum because Troy couldn't read the papers and signed him away. Alberta had a baby girl but died during childbirth. Troy challenges Death to come and get him after he builds a fence. Troy brings home his baby, Raynell. Rose takes in Raynell as her own child, but refuses to be dutiful as Troy's wife.

On Troy's payday, Bono shows up unexpectedly. Troy and Bono acknowledge how each man made good on his bet about the fence and the refrigerator. Troy insists that Cory leave the house and provide for himself. Cory brings up Troy's recent failings with Rose. Cory points out that the house and property, from which Troy is throwing Cory out, should actually be owned by Gabriel whose government checks paid for most of the mortgage payments. Troy physically attacks Cory. Troy kicks Cory out of the house for good. Cory leaves. Troy swings the baseball bat in the air, taunting Death.

Eight years later, Raynell plays in her newly planted garden. Troy has died from a heart attack. Cory returns home from the Marines to attend Troy's funeral. Lyons and Bono join Rose too. Cory refuses to attend. Rose teaches Cory that not attending Troy's funeral does not make Cory a man. Raynell and Cory sing one of Troy's father's blues songs. Gabriel turns up, released or escaped from the mental hospital. Gabe blows his trumpet but no sound comes out. He tries again but the trumpet will not play. Disappointed and hurt, Gabriel dances. He makes a cry and the Heavens open wide. He says, "That's the way that goes," and the play ends.