Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot

Exercises page 338-339

>> I think it is mainly written for children. It describes a typical day of a Gumbie cat. It seems to be a poem to help children to sleep, a sort of lullaby.

>> I think it is a poor world, crowded by mice and cockroaches. The cat tries to make them better animals, to teach them how to behave.

Oliver Twist -

Exercises pag 339-341

>> Oliver is a nine years old, pale, thin child. He has a robust spirit.

>> The establishment is an institution where poor children lived and work.Comprehension:

>> The children are in a large room, they are eating.

>> They sit staring at the copper and sucking their fingers, hoping to find on them some gruel.

>> The children decide to ask more food to the master. Oliver rises from the table, goes to the master and asks "some more"

>> The children are surprised and astonished, because a child is not expected to ask for more food.Interpretation:

>> Reading the story I'm somehow amused but above all I am saddened because of the situation the children have to face. They are almost starving.

>> C. Dickens' style helps the author to evidence aspects and behaviors of his characters. He uses contrasts:

"Thanks to the spare diet"

"Participating in a sound thrashing"

"Festive composition"

"Suffered the tortures of show starvation"

"He might some night happen to eat..."

Hyperbole:

"The bowls never wanted... shone again"

"Horror was depicted"

Repetitions:

"Ninth birthday"

"I want some more"

"For more"

>> The writer sympathizes with the boys.

>> This type of narrator knows the facts and the lives of his characters.

>> The writer's serious aim in telling this episode is to underline the difficulties Oliver and the other children face in Dickens' historical period. They are often exploited in hard and dangerous works.